Something Wicca This Way Comes
by Paigeypie96
Summary: This is basically a retelling of the first episode of Charmed with an added OC. See details inside. Rated M for language and a same sex pairing.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: **Yes, I'm starting on another new fanfiction, and YES, there will be an added OC in this one. It's what I'm good at, after all. Haha. Just to give you an idea of what you're about to read (if anybody even reads this), this is basically a retelling of the very first episode of Charmed: "Something Wicca This Way Comes". I've wanted to write a fanfiction of Charmed with an OC in it for quite a while now, but I've never really given it the time or had the opportunity to. So, here it is. As with all of my stories, there will be femslash action going on in later chapters, but that should be a given with anything I write. It will be one of the sisters/OC, but I don't want to give too much away. Standard disclaimers apply. I do not own Charmed or the idea for this episode, but I do own the OC that will be in this (whenever I get the chance to create her). {I'd just like to point out that I, in fact, did base the OC of Lilly Scotts on Lilly Scott from American Idol Season 9. Well, her looks and name anyway. What can I say? That girl is the paragon of adorableness. The OC's attitude is a mixture of mine and Faith's from Buffy the Vampire Slayer. This is just a note in case any of you were wondering. I do not own the image of Lilly Scott. She is an unsigned singer-songwriter, and you should all check her out with her amazing band Varlet. She's really amazing.} Thank you all for reading, and feel free to leave a review, but remember: NO flames. I'm not forcing you to read my work, and I think it's only fair to give polite and civil reviews. Again, thank you and have a great day. :) **x**

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The city of San Francisco glowed even more so than usual as rain pelted down from the heavens. Millions of sounds, millions of sights, and millions of droplets were what greeted the San Franciscans on this bleary and perpetually soaked night. Still, that didn't deter people from their usual "night-life". Civilians walked the streets bundled up in raincoats and carrying umbrellas as the rain ushered them onward towards their destinations. Taxis drove on the paved roads; their headlights blaring to light their way as their clients rested dryly and cozily in the backseat of the cabs. However, one cab in particular was pulling off into the driveway of an upper class apartment complex. Water dripped from its yellow frame as it pulled under the awning leading to the front door. The dryness underneath was a welcomed pleasure for the inhabitants of the vehicle.

Surely, one would think that the residents of The Talmadge would all be wrapped up snuggly in their beds. This was not the case for at least one of the occupants. She was an elderly woman with greying hair, the hue of it a gentle blonde that seemed to cascade delicately from the top of her scalp down to rest upon her fragile shoulders. Her attire consisted of a deeply purple robe that was wispy in design and nature. Around her neck hung a few talismans; mostly for decoration, but some for…other purposes. In her hands she held a white dish full of hard pellets that gave off the aroma herbs, fish, and other things. She made a soft clucking noise with her tongue before calling, "Here, baby. C'mon, baby," into another room in her tidy apartment.

As she set the dish upon the patterned tile of her kitchen floor, a Siamese cat ran eagerly into the room. Before her hand had even left the dish, the cat was enthusiastically nosing around her food. Crouching down, she wrapped her tail neatly around her paws as she tucked into her dinner. The elderly woman smiled down at her feline companion as she ran her fingers over its silken, white fur. "Good girl," she cooed to the animal.

Leaving the cat to enjoy its meal, she walked at a leisurely pace into the living room of her quaint abode holding a chalice tightly in her hands. The cool and smooth texture of it felt soothing against the skin of her palms. A nervous expression fixed itself upon her face as she kneeled down to place the goblet upon what appeared to be a Wiccan alter. Also adorning the top of the small alter were many different candles, a few herbs, and what appeared to be an athame. Taking a deep breath, she pointed to each of the candles and almost as if by magic, the wick caught flame.

Once they were all ablaze, she took another steadying breath as she leaned back and brought her hands together. As the aroma of the candles made her relax both internally and externally, she began an unusual chant; all the while keeping her eyes fixated upon her alter.

As she continued her chant, a hiss sounded from the kitchen as the cat dashed away from its food dish to get away from a booted pair of feet that skulked across the room silently. Not paying any mind to anything other than her chant, the woman neither heard of saw the figure creeping up behind her. "_Oh, Ancient One of the Earth so deep, master of Moon and Sun, I shield you in my Wiccan way here in my circle 'round; asking you protect this space and offer your Sun force down…._"

Closing her eyes and breathing quietly, she finally took notice of the footsteps behind her. With a wary mind, she began turning her head to view whoever was behind her. Seeing the boots, she jumped from where she knelt with a startled gasp which quickly turned into a relieved sigh. "What are you doing here?" she asked the figure.

Without a reply, the figure drew a knife from its coat and lunged at the woman. The blade sliced neatly into the flesh of her stomach, making her cry out in pain. As she fell to the floor, the rain pelting against the window drowned out her sobs as her life left her body to rejoin the Universe.

Lighting flashed in the sky above the city as Piper Halliwell rushed to get inside of her Victorian styled home. She sighed in relief as she finally got through the stained glass and oak doors of her home. Kicking the door closed behind her, she reached out with one hand to hang up her drenched and overused umbrella. Taking notice of the unusual silence, she cast a suspicious glance around the hallway in which she was standing. "Prue?" she called out.

"In here, working on the chandelier!" her sister called back in an exasperated tone.

Knowing now where her sister was, Piper laid her grocery laden bags down upon the ground to disrobe from her jacket, also taking the time to hang it up. She sighed in contented relief as she leaned over once more to pick the bags back up with one of her hands. Using her free hand to brush back her shoulder-length brunette hair, she walked into the room where her sister was. "Sorry I'm late," she said as she walked towards her older sibling.

"What else is new? You know, Piper, I would've been here to meet the electrician myself, but I can't leave the museum until six. I haven't even had time to change!" Prue groaned as she stepped down from the latter and turned to face her sister. Her bobbed and disheveled hair matched the colour of Piper's as it rested against her cheeks.

"I just…I didn't realize how long I was in China Town," Piper admitted with an apologetic frown. Deciding to change the subject, she reached behind her to tug down her forest green coloured sweater. "Did Jeremy call?" she asked, grinning a little to herself.

Prue sighed and looked towards the grandfather clock they had resting against a beige wall in the corner of the room. "No, but he had some roses and a package delivered…." Piper began walking towards the dining room in search of her flowers and present, so Prue decided to follow her. "What were you doing in China Town? I thought you had an interview in North Beach?" She tilted her head at her sister slightly in confusion.

"I _did_, but I went to Yung Lee Market after my interview to get the ingredients for my audition recipe tomorrow," she explained as she placed her burden down upon the wooden table. With a small smile, she reached out to feel the rose petals and observe their beauty.

"So, that Wolfgang-puck knockoff didn't hire you today?"

"No," Piper admitted with a disheartened sigh, "but this just may get me the job." She undid the wrappings of the package Jeremy had sent her and pulled a bottle of wine from the inside.

Prue frowned in disbelief as she snatched the bottle from her sibling to observe its label. "Jeremy sent you _Port_?"

Piper rung her hands together tightly as she looked towards the glass bottle with a hopeful expression. "It's the ultimate ingredient for my recipe," she stated as Prue grinned at the bottle.

"Nice boyfriend," she teased. Piper's lips curled up in a sarcastic "I-Knew-It-Was-Coming" smirk as she turned her attention back to the lovely roses. However, her eyes were drawn towards another item lying on the table beside the vase.

"Oh, my GOD! Tell me that's not our old scrying spirit board!" she exclaimed as she ran her hands over the smooth, copper coloured stone that had letters etched into its surface.

"Yeah. I found it in the basement when I was looking for the circuit tester." Prue walked over to stand behind her sister as she let her eyes run over their once beloved "toy". Piper chuckled as she picked it up and held it gently.

"'_To my three beautiful girls. May this give you the light to find the shadows. The power of three will set you free. Love, Mom,_'" Piper read aloud. "We never did figure out what this inscription meant," she grumbled, looking over her shoulder at Prue.

Prue tilted her head back as she stepped away from her sister. "Well, we should send it to Phoebe. That girl is so in the dark, maybe a little bit of light will help!" she joked as she walked off into another room.

"You're always so hard on her," Piper sighed, causing Prue to stop in her tracks and turn to face her younger sibling.

"Piper! The girl has no vision, no sense of the future!" Prue growled.

"I _really _think Phoebe's coming around," Piper muttered as she cast her eyes towards the ground, taking particular interest in Prue's shoes.

"_Well, _as long as she doesn't come around _here_, I guess that's good news," she quipped with a smirk as she walked away.

Piper watched her sister go with a guilty expression before deciding to give up. She sighed as she again picked up her bags and went to stow them away in their proper placed in the Halliwell kitchen. She failed to notice, as she was walking away, that the scrying piece on the board began to move without any help from either of the girls.


	2. Chapter 2

Rain continued to pour down upon the city as seemingly millions of people gathered around the scene of the crime. It was almost like an ocean of umbrellas and men and women in rain ponchos as the SFPD (San Francisco Police Department) pulled up and stepped out of their vehicles. An agent in a long, tanned trench coat walked around the back of his vehicle and towards the crowd as the rain continued to drench him to the bone. As he walked towards his fellow law enforcement agents, he held up his badge to the one who was guarding the entrance to the scene.

"Okay, Inspector," she said as she moved aside to grant him entrance.

As he walked under the awning of The Talmadge, he ran his fingers through his sodden hair. Another inspector who was perched by the door of the apartment walked towards the newcomer as he spotted him. "Well, it's about time!" the caramel-skinned man called.

"I came as soon as I heard," the newcomer replied as he stood in front of his colleague. "Another dead female, right? Mid-to-late twenties?"

"I've been paging for over an hour, Trudeau. _Where _have you been?" the African American inspector asked as he turned his back on the newcomer and walked through the white framed door.

"Checking out a lead," he replied as he followed the other man as they walked through a swarm of police officers who were in uniforms, while they were in suits.

"What lead?" Darrel asked his partner as they continued onwards.

"One that didn't go anywhere," Andy Trudeau sighed in admittance.

"You avoided my question," Darrel pointed out with a frown.

Andy sighed once more and halted in front of the other inspector, turning to face him with an irritated expression. "Because you don't want to know why I went to an occult shop!" Shaking his head slightly, he looked down at his watch to get the time.

Darrel chuckled a little and moved around his partner. "You hate me, don't you?" he asked. "You…you wanna see me suffer!"

"I want to solve these murders," Andy corrected as he followed. "Someone's after witches."

"Women!" Darrel corrected in exasperation.

Andy gave him a sarcastic glance. "That woman up there…I bet she was killed with an athame."

"Wrong!" Darrel growled as he turned to face his partner, as it seemed it was his turn to be vexed. "Double edged, steel knife," he informed the Caucasian man as he tilted his head to the side slightly, thinking that he had thoroughly schooled his partner and long-time friend.

Andy looked down and grinned slightly before raising his gaze to look upon his friend. "Right…. That's an athame…. It's a ceremonial tool. Witches use them to direct energy."

"That woman didn't direct _jack_! She was stabbed. Plain and simple."

"Was she found near an alter?" Andy asked as he looked around to see if anyone was listening to their conversation. After all, this was an apartment, and the civilians had to walk past them to get to their homes.

Darrel raised his eyebrow and gave his partner a listless look. "Yes," he grumbled.

"Were there carvings on that alter?"

Darrel just continued to stare at him listlessly. "Just do me a favor," he muttered, breaking their silence, "don't ever follow a lead without checking with me first." He raised his eyebrows as if asking Andy if he completely understood.

"Do you want to go to occult shops?" he asked to drive his point across. Darrel just grinned and chuckled in a way that said "I'm going to kill you." As suddenly as that expression appeared, it left and Darrel was gazing at him angrily.

"Just get to work, okay?" With that being said, he walked away and left Andy to his job.

"Inspector Trudeau!" a voice called, causing Andy to turn around to find the source. His heart sunk a little when he realized that it was a reporter. "Jeremy Burns, San Francisco Chronicle. Do you care to comment?"

"Uh…a woman was stabbed. Plain and simple," he replied, using his coworker's words from earlier.

The reporter looked up at him in disbelief. "Well, that's the third one in three weeks!"

Andy merely sighed and turned to get back to his job, leaving the reporter standing there with nothing to bring back to his boss. It was probably going to be his job, so he thought he'd try some of the other officers.

At the Halliwell home, Piper was peering out of the window into the driveway. With an anxious expression, she turned and walked away from the window and walked at a brisk pace past the kitchen and into the pantry where Prue was standing beside a fuse box looking irate.

"I just don't get it!" she growled as she threw her hands up in defeat. "I've tried everything. There is no reason why that chandelier should not be working." Her arms ached from over an hour of trying to tinker with the light itself and she found herself readying to quit.

Piper bit her lip slightly and ran her fingers through her hair. "Uh…you know how we've been talking 'bout what to do with that spare room? I think you're right. We do need a roommate," she stated in a very jumpy manner.

Prue just rolled her eyes and slapped her sister on the shoulder, not wanting to take the time to deal with this right now. Along with her job, her love life, and that damned chandelier, a roommate was the least of her worries. As she walked past her sister and into their yellow and white themed kitchen, she decided to give it some consideration. "Well, we could rent out the room at a reduced rate in exchange for help around the house," she suggested as she walked towards the counters.

"Phoebe is good with a wrench!" Piper pointed out as Prue began shuffling through the drawers in search of God only knows what.

As soon as the words left her sister's mouth, Prue glanced over her shoulder. "Phoebe lives in New York," she countered, turning her attention back to her shuffling.

Piper sighed and decided to give up her charade. "Not anymore," she admitted as her hands balled into fists. She was afraid of her sister's reaction, knowing that her elder and her younger sibling didn't get along, to say the least.

Prue slammed the drawer shut and spun around to face her sister with a look of sheer and utter incredulity. "What?" she asked as if she hadn't heard her.

Piper rung her hands together and decided to look anywhere but at Prue. "She…left New York. She's moving back in with us…." Piper bit down on her lower lip again as she waited for the eruption that was soon to come.

Prue just shook her head violently and stomped her way past Piper, sighed, "You've _got _to be kidding."

Piper followed after her sister as she stormed from the kitchen. "Well, I could hardly say no!" she pleaded in her own defense. "It's her house, too. It was willed to all of us."

"Yeah, MONTHS ago, and we haven't seen or spoken to her since!" Prue shouted as she continued to walk away from her younger sibling.

When Piper muttered, "Well, _you_ haven't spoken to her," Prue turned to glare at her.

"No, I haven't," Prue admitted as her voice rose in volume in accordance to her anger. "Maybe you have forgotten why I'm so mad at her."

"Well, of course not!" Piper replied, "But she had nowhere else to go! She lost her job, she's in debt…"

"And this is news?" Prue asked sarcastically. "How long have you known about this, anyway?"

Piper threw out her arms and shook her head to indicate her desperateness for understanding. "A couple of days! Maybe a week…or two…."

Prue just nodded her head and sighed, "Thanks for sharing." She sucked on her teeth slightly in annoyance. "When does she arrive?"

Just as the words left her lips, their youngest sister walked through the stained glass doors of the Halliwell manor, dripping wet with a lopsided grin plastered across her face. "Surprise!" she announced cheerfully as she hung up her umbrella and closed the door gently behind her.

Prue didn't even bother to turn around as her expression contorted into one of absolute rage. Piper continued to ring her hands together and looked around Prue to smile uneasily at her little sister.

"I found the Hide-A-Key!" Phoebe announced as she held up a tiny silver key. She continued to walk towards her sister, not thinking anything of Prue's rigid stance.

"Phoebe! Welcome home…" Piper giggled apprehensively as she walked around her older sister to greet her younger one. Prue turned towards her youngest sibling as well, but she just eyed her with contempt.

"Hello! Hey!" Phoebe sing-songed as she enveloped her older sister into a hug.

"It's so good to see you," Piper stated as she returned the embrace. "Isn't it, Prue?" Piper turned her gaze towards her other sister and fixed her with a stern gaze.

Prue's eyes looked glazed over with tears and her face was turning red as she continued to glare at her sisters. "I'm speechless," she finally said. Piper would've continued to glare at her, but a honking horn from outside the house broke the tension.

"Oops! I forgot about the cab!" Phoebe sighed. Piper turned towards her and rubbed her arms in a friendly manner.

"I'll get it," she assured her baby sister. She walked away from the other Halliwells and grabbed her purse on her way towards the door.

"Piper, that's MY purse!" Prue called after her, crossing her arms across her chest. Piper just looked back long enough to wave her off. Without another glance, she raced out the door to pay the irked taxi driver.

"Thanks," Phoebe mumbled. "I'll pay you back."

Prue nodded slightly to show her sister that she didn't believe a word of it. Her shimmering blue eyes slowly drifted down to her sibling's luggage. "Is that all you brought?" she asked with sincere curiosity.

"That's all that I own. That and a bike," Phoebe answered truthfully. Prue just nodded to show that she understood, and despite it all, she felt guilt creeping up on her and knotting her stomach. "Look, I know that you don't want me here…."

"We're not selling Grams' house," Prue stated firmly as she walked towards the younger brunette.

"Is _that _why you think I came back?" Phoebe asked as she stood her ground against Prue.

"Look, the only reason Piper and I gave up our apartment to move back here was because this house has been in our family for generations," Prue informed the hotheaded young woman.

"No history lesson needed. I grew up here, too! So, can we talk about what's really bothering you?"

"No, I'm still furious with you," Prue stated calmly as she shook her head.

"So you'd rather have a tense reunion filled with boring chitchat and unimportant small talk?" Phoebe asked sarcastically.

"No, but otherwise we won't have anything to talk about," the older brunette explained.

"I never touched Roger," Phoebe blurted out smoothly. Her eyes narrowed as she gazed at her older sister, as she was sure that this was the reason for her cold attitude.

"Whoa…!" Prue tried to interrupt, but Phoebe kept right on.

"I know you think otherwise, because that's what that Armani-wearing, Chardonnay-slugging, trust-funder told you, but—."

"Hey!" Piper interrupted as she walked back into the room. "I have a great idea. Why don't I make a fabulous reunion dinner?" She walked to stand between her sisters and placed her hands on her hips, almost as if acting as a protective barrier between the two.

"I'm not hungry," Prue growled. "And if I do get hungry, I'll just call up Lilly and ask her to go out with me." The last part was directed at Piper, who—despite the situation—grinned slightly.

Phoebe sighed and leaned down to grab her luggage. "I ate on the bus," she informed the middle sister. All Piper could do was watch her sisters walk away from each other and her as well.

"Okay, we'll try the group hug later!"


	3. Chapter 3

"_I am at an apartment building on the corner of 8__th__ and Franklin where a murder occurred earlier this evening. The victim, believed to be a nurse at County General, was brutally stabbed to death in her apartment. Police have yet…_"

Phoebe Halliwell observed herself in the mirror of her old room. She ran her fingers across her jaw and down her neck. She was barely listening to the news broadcast, but what she heard of it frightened her a little. However, she was well used to that type of thing, having lived in New York, but the fear never quite went away.

A knock at the door startled her from her observations. "It's me!" Piper called from the other side of the wooden frame.

"Come on in," Phoebe said into the mirror before turning around to wait for her sister to enter. Piper walked in wearing a short and snug blue nightgown, with a knee-length robe over it. In one hand, she was carrying a tray that held a sandwich on it and two glasses of cola. "Ooh!" Phoebe sighed in delight at the sight of the goodies. "God, I'm starving!" she grinned as she flopped down on her bed.

"I figured," Piper said with a slight roll of her eyes. Her attention turned momentarily towards the small television that was blaring on her sister's dresser. "Hey! That's my boyfriend, Jeremy. What happened?" she asked as she set the tray down in front of her ravenous sister.

"Oh, some woman got wacked," Phoebe replied nonchalantly.

"Wacked?" Piper echoed in confusion. "Phoebe, you've been in New York way too long."

With a disheartened look, she leaned back onto her pillows and studied her fingers. "Yeah, and I should've stayed." Piper sighed as she sat down next to her sister and placed a comforting hand upon her leg. "But why didn't you tell Prue that I was coming back?"

"And risk her changing the locks?" Piper asked rhetorically. "I don't think so, Phoebe." She grabbed the remote controller from her sister and quickly shut the television off. "Besides, you should've been the one to tell her. Not me."

Still choosing to pay more attention to her finger nails than Piper, Phoebe merely replied, "Good point, Chicken Little. It's just so hard for me to talk to her." Bringing a piece of the sandwich to her mouth, she took a crunchy bit and gazed at her sister as she chewed. "She's always been more like a mother."

"That's not her fault. She practically had to sacrifice her own—," Piper began, but Phoebe finished for her.

"—her own childhood to help raise us. Yeah, yeah, yeah." She laughed at her sister as she stuck her tongue out at her younger sibling.

"Hey, we were lucky that she was so responsible," Piper admitted now-seriously. "You and I had it easy. All we had to do was be there." Piper shrugged her shoulders to emphasize her sympathy for their older sister.

"Yeah, but I don't need a mom anymore, you know? I need a sister…."

A knock at the door interrupted their conversation. Phoebe looked up to see Prue carrying a thick blanket as she walked into the room. "Hey," she greeted, not meeting her youngest sibling's eyes. "This was always the coldest room in the house," she continued as she placed the blanket down in a chair by the door.

"Thanks," Phoebe said sullenly.

Prue looked down at the floor before turning and walking away into her own room. As soon as she was inside of her own personal space, she closed the door and leaned back against it, sighing heavily. "_Why do we always have to be this way?_" she asked herself as she closed her eyes. Her shoulders slumped against the frame before she heaved herself up and away from the wooden support.

Walking deeper into her room, she flopped down onto her neatly made bed. Her eyes scanned over her room before resting upon the nightstand beside her. It wasn't holding much, but what it did hold made her smile and think back. It held a picture of her and a coworker, who also happened to be her best friend, named Lillian. Leaning against the golden coloured frame was a tiny "note" from Lilly. On it was written, "_To the most gorgeous and amazing woman I know, check YES or NO. Will you be my girlfriend? I love you, Prue!_" The memory of that day at work made Prue's grin widen. Lilly had slipped her that note during a meeting with their boss, and she had had to pretend like she was coughing to cover her laughter. What made her "cough" even harder was when their boss suggested that she go get a drink of water.

"_Ahh, Lilly is the best,_" she thought as she laid her head back against the headboard of her bed. A gentle knock against her window made her jump from where she lay like a startled housecat. After a moment or two of silence, she began to wonder if she'd just imagined the knock. As soon as that thought ran through her mind, another knock sounded. She tip-toed her way over to the window cautiously and very slightly pulled back the curtain. What she saw below made her shake her head and grin.

Standing below her was a very wet and very vexed Lilly. Her platinum hair was plastered to her face and her clothes hung from her body, weighed down by the downpour of rain. Her thin leather jacket stood as no protection against the rain, and it squelched quietly whenever she moved. "_Thank God for waterproof makeup!_" Lilly thought with a silent chuckle. As she waited for Prue to come to the window, she picked up another tiny stone and tossed it up, angling it exactly so it bounced off the frame and not the glass pane. Once, she'd made that mistake when they were teenagers, and the Halliwells' grandmother had almost killed her.

"Prue, hurry up already!" she sighed. She knew she was only exacerbating things, as they both had to go into work tomorrow, but sometimes, it was just worth it to see Prue's face again. She smiled in relief as she saw her friend pulling back the curtains and slowly pushing the window open.

"What are you doing here?" the brunette called down to the slightly older woman.

"Oh, I was just in the neighborhood and I thought I'd drop by!" Lilly quipped, squinting her eyes against the falling rain. "Hang on, P. I'm coming up!" she stated as she climbed onto the banister of the side-porch. Thinking for a second, she grinned up at Prue and said, "Unless, of course, you'd prefer me to 'go down'."

Prue rolled her eyes at her wayward friend. "You're awful!" she grumbled to the white-haired "she-devil". She bit down on her lip as she carefully watched her friend scale the side of the slippery house. It looked like a task, but Lilly made it seem easy. When she was balanced on the white banister of the porch, she began to claw her way up the wooden post that lead to a tiny over-hanging piece of roof of the Victorian house. It wasn't big enough for her to stand on for long, but once she pulled herself up onto it, she quickly jumped onto the little terrace beside Prue's bedroom window.

"Move over, P!" she instructed in a quiet hiss as multiple water droplets dripped off of her nose.

"Okay, come on in," Prue hissed back as she stepped aside. Lilly gave a grunt as she maneuvered her way off the terrace and into the open window. Once she was on the ledge, Prue rushed forward to help get her completely inside of the house. She stood there, looking the older woman over—who was grinning from ear to ear and panting slightly—and shook her head. "All of that when I could've just walked downstairs and let you in the front door…."

"Yeah, but that's no fun, and since when do I do things the easy way? Besides, don't you just feel like a naughty teenage girl who just let her boyfriend in her room so they could sex it up?" She smirked at the slight blush that began to creep into her friend's cheeks as the words left her lips.

"But here's the thing, I'm an adult, so I don't have to feel 'naughty' about it, and secondly, you're not my boyfriend!" Prue teased as she stuck her tongue out at her friend.

"Ah, but I'd like to be," Lilly joked with a wink. She brought a pale hand up to run her fingers through her soaking hair.

"Oh, I bet you're freezing. Want to change into something of mine?" Prue asked with sincere concern lacing her voice.

"That'd be nice, but it'd be even nicer if we both got out of our clothes and you warmed me up in bed," Lilly laughed as she leaned forward to playfully kiss Prue's cheek.

"Oh, you big ham!" Prue exclaimed as she turned her head slightly so she could kiss Lilly's cheek, too. When she pulled away, the whole side of her face was damp from Lilly's drenched skin. Lilly just laughed and waved her off as the brunette jokingly stomped away to get a pair of her pajamas for the green-eyed woman.

When she returned, she handed Lilly a midnight coloured tank top with the matching bottoms. She smirked as if to say, "Do I know your style, or what?" Lilly just smiled at her friend and began to shrug off her jacket. "Um, hello?" Prue interrupted, causing Lilly to stop and stare at her with her jacket off and her shirt halfway up to reveal a flat and toned stomach.

"What?" Lilly asked in a puzzled tone.

"So, you're just going to change in front of me? We have a bathroom, you know," Prue chided her sometimes-clueless friend.

Lilly shrugged and continued pulling up her shirt, taking it completely off and tossing it over to join her jacket in the collapsible clothe basket Prue kept in her room. Prue blushed at the sight of her friend standing before her in nothing more than her trousers and her bra. "What, P? It's not like I've got anything that you haven't seen before," Lilly stated with a laugh. "So, unless I've grown a penis within the last few hours without my knowledge, we should be good."

Prue sighed in defeat and tried to look elsewhere as Lilly changed into the pajamas. Once or twice, she found that her blue eyes strayed back towards Lilly's half-nude form, running over the smooth expanse of skin. But as soon as she realized what she was doing, she quickly looked away again. Lilly caught her looking a couple of times out of the corner of her eye, especially when she flung her trousers into the clothe basket to join the rest of her outfit. However, it disappointed her to see that Prue didn't look again until she was completely dressed. "See, now that wasn't that bad, was it?" Lilly asked while walking over to Prue's queen-sized bed. She lay down on one side of it and patted beside her, motioning for Prue to join her.

"I love how you just act like this is your own home," Prue teased as she lay beside her friend, noticing how comfortable it felt to be pressed up against her like that.

"Well, it is my home away from home. You know I can't stand being around my roommate. Ugh. He's such a fucking pig," Lilly muttered under her breath as she looked away from Prue.

"Oh, God…. What did he do now?" Prue asked as she turned her head to look at her friend. Her brow furrowed slightly in concern as she wondered if her roommate had finally gone "too far."

"It's nothing. It's not important. Now, tell me why you look all sad, Princess," Lilly changed the subject as she turned on her side to face Prue. She nonchalantly draped one of her legs over Prue's and stretched one arm out across Prue's abdomen.

The brunette didn't object to this, as she found it quite comforting. She moved her own hand down to trace small circles on Lilly's exposed arm, which made Lilly smile in contentedness. "Oh, it's nothing, really. It's just that…Phoebe's living with us again, and you know how I feel about her after what Roger told us."

Lilly stiffened beside her at the mention of Prue's ex's name. "He was a smarmy asshole, anyway. You can do a million times better than him…" she growled. As Prue looked at her in astonishment, Lilly decided to broach the subject of what else Prue had said. "And no way! Pheebs is back in town? That's slammin'! I can't wait to see the little twerp! Last time I saw her, she was sneaking out when I was sneaking in. Ah, it's good to hear that she's back. You know, P, I never believed what Roger said about her. Other than you, no woman on the face of the Earth found him appealing." Feeling that she'd successfully changed the subject, she trailed off to let Prue get her say in.

Lilly was surprised when Prue just stayed silent and continued to trail her fingertips gently over her arm. "P…? Love…? Prudence Halliwell?" Lilly asked softly, trying to bring her friend back to the Land of the Living. She wondered what had made her normally talkative friend go so silent like that.

In Prue's mind, visions of Phoebe stealing Lilly away from her like she had supposedly done Roger fell in and out with reality. She felt jealousy and worry digging deep at her heart. Why was she so jealous? Phoebe wasn't a lesbian, and neither was she as far as Prue knew. Despite all of the joking, she didn't even think Lilly was a lesbian, with her having lived with Mark—her roommate—for nearly two years now. It startled her out of her nightmarish thinking when Lilly actually used her full name. "Huh? Oh, sorry. I was just thinking…" Prue sighed as she looked down at Lilly's arm.

"Care to share, P?" Lilly asked, her voice going softer than Prue had ever known it to.

"Don't worry. It's—," Prue began.

"—nothing important," Lilly finished for her with a disappointed frown tugging the corners of her lips down. "That's a load of rubbish, too, P. If you're thinking that hard over something, then it obviously is something. You can tell me anything, you should know that by now. Unless it's about Trudeau…. Then I don't want to know," she admitted as she too looked down at her arm.

Prue smiled a bit at her friend's extremely blunt honesty. She could always count on Lilly to make her smile. "No, Lilly, it's not about Andy. It was actually about you and…Phoebe," Prue revealed with a soft sigh.

"Hmm…yeah, what about me and the little imp?" she asked with a fond smile.

"Lilly, you're not a…lesbian…are you?" Prue asked with a sinking feeling in her heart.

Lilly just stared at her wide-eyed for a moment before her composure broke and she cracked up. She began laughing so hard that her head actually began to throb and tears were brought to her eyes, but still, she couldn't stop. She buried her face in Prue's shortly bobbed hair, hoping that it would calm her down. She did continue to laugh for a little while, but it soon died into a chuckle, which died into a giggle, which then turned to silence. She kept her face hidden in Prue's hair and let a slow breath escape her lips, which tickled over Prue's skin, causing the brunette to shiver slightly.

"Well, are you?" Prue asked again, turning her head to face the white haired woman. Their lips were merely inches apart from each other, and as Prue let her gaze slide down to Lilly's, the older woman smiled to reveal a set of perfect, white teeth.

"Yes, Prue. I'm a lesbian. I thought you knew that, though," she said as she confirmed her friend's fears unknowingly.

"Oh, I—."

"Prue, if you feel uncomfortable now, please tell me, and I'd be more than happy to back off a little," Lilly offered at once, fearing with everything in her that Prue would see her differently; as some ungodly creature put on this Earth to destroy innocence and live in sin.

"No! God, no! I'm not uncomfortable, I just…" Prue trailed off and murmured the rest so quietly that Lilly didn't hear a word of it.

"Tell me, P," Lilly coaxed her reassuringly.

"Are you…interested…in…Phoebe?" Prue asked uneasily, still looking worriedly into Lilly's green eyes.

Lilly merely chuckled slightly and shook her head. "No, Prue. I'm not interested in Phoebe. You've got the wrong Halliwell, there."

Prue bit her lip as her heart began to beat just a little faster. "Oh. So, you're interested in Piper?" She had a feeling which sister Lilly had meant, but she kind of wanted to hear her say it.

"No, dumbass. You're so clueless sometimes. It's you. I'm 'interested' in you. No one else. I promise," Lilly assured her. As if in tribute to every sappy romance movie, Lilly slowly leaned forward to capture Prue's lips with her own. Both of their eyes fluttered shut as Prue began to kiss the older woman back. It was a sweet kiss, full of tender love and compassion on both sides. Prue felt her pulse speed up and wondered about her feelings for Lilly. Could she possibly be a lesbian? Or at least bisexual? She had to be. These feelings—what she felt for Lilly—were definitely more than friendship. She just wondered how long they'd been that way without her realizing.

Prue frowned a little when Lilly pulled away from her slightly. She opened her eyes to see her friend smiling over at her. With a gentle hand, Lilly reached up and brushed Prue's hair back behind her ear as she whispered, "See, now that wasn't so bad, was it?"

Prue just smiled and pressed herself against Lilly, who instinctually wrapped her arms around the tiny brunette. As Prue found that she relaxing slightly in the white haired woman's arms, she realized with a sigh that she was going to have a lot of explaining to do tomorrow morning. But that was to be then and this was now, and she wanted nothing more than to live in this moment.


	4. Chapter 4

Lightening once more flashed through the sky followed by a painfully loud clap of thunder as Inspector Andy Trudeau pulled the sheet back over the body of the victim. He'd found a small tattoo upon her neck of what appeared to be three pointed chain links connected in the center with a circle around them. He, of course, had no idea what that might have been, other than some sacred symbol to her coven. "The same tattoo was on the other two victims," he announced to Darrel.

"So the murderer is killing cults," the senior inspector concluded as he walked towards his partner.

"No…. The murderer is on a witch hunt," Andy corrected with a smile at his partner.

"Oh, yeah. He's five hundred years old and he lives in Salem!" Darrel growled in annoyance. His partner could be quite the irritating young man. "Look around, Trudeau. Pentagrams, alters, offerings…all tools for a freak fest!" He walked towards the small alter the body of the woman had been found near and examined its contents before turning back towards the younger inspector.

"They call 'em Sabbaths," Andy corrected his partner again, only leading Darrel to be more vexed at him. "This was hardly a freak fest. She was a solitary practitioner. She practiced her craft alone."

"Mmhm…" Darrel hummed as he raised his eyebrows as if to tell his partner that he didn't believe this.

"Let me ask you something, Morris. Do you believe in UFOs?"

"Hell, no," he replied as Andy crossed his arms over his chest.

"Neither do I, but do you believe that there are people out there who DO believe in UFOs?"

"Yes, but I think they're crazy," Darrel stated clearly as he waited for his partner to make his point.

"Well, then, why can't you believe that there are people who believe they are witches?" Andy asked curiously as he held his partner's gaze steadily.

"Look, all I know is if you don't stop talking about witches, I'm gonna start questioning you."

Their argument was broken up as a small, Siamese feline jumped upon a counter in the room. It let out a loud meow as it demanded attention. A small red collar hung around its neck, and the tag held the same symbol as the tattoo on the victim's neck. Andy walked towards it and reached out a hand to pet the creature.

"I'd stay away from that cat, Trudeau. It's been clawing the crap out of everybody," Darrel said as he walked up behind the inspector who was easily handling the cat. He shook his head and began to walk away. Looking over his shoulder, he said, "I'll be in the car." Andy picked up the cat and held it close to his chest as it meowed again and began to purr at the attention it was receiving.

In the Halliwell manor, Piper and Phoebe were sitting at a small table in the sun room. Two, lit candles were placed upon either side of the scrying spirits board Prue had found earlier. Both sisters had their hands upon the pointer that moved to the letters, as did any other with any Ouija board.

"I'm glad to hear you and Jeremy are still together," Phoebe said as she watched the pointer carefully as it began to move. "Where did you meet him, anyway?"

"We met at the hospital cafeteria the day Grams was admitted. He was covering a story and I was bawling over a bagel. So, he handed me a napkin," Piper informed her little sister.

"How romantic!" Phoebe exclaimed jokingly.

"As a matter of fact, it was. The napkin had his phone number on it!" Piper jumped to the defense of her boyfriend as Phoebe merely laughed. "Stop pushing the pointer!" Piper ordered.

"I'm not touching it," Phoebe replied.

"You! You used to always push the pointer," Piper pointed out as she withdrew her hand from the tiny wooden piece. "More popcorn?" she asked her little sister as she stood up and walked off towards the kitchen.

As Piper walked out of sight, Phoebe heard a rather loud thump from Prue's room. "God, what in the hell is she doing up there?" Phoebe muttered to herself while looking up at the ceiling. "Hmm…. Hey, Piper! I forgot your question!" she called after her sister.

"I asked if Prue would have sex with someone other than herself this year!" Piper called back.

"That's disgusting," Phoebe grumbled as she looked down at the board. "Please say yes!" The pointer jerked towards the letter "A", causing Phoebe to gasp out in shock. "Piper…. Piper, get in here!" The pointer jerked to towards the letter "T" as Piper walked into the room.

"What?" she asked worriedly as Phoebe drew her hands back from the scrying board.

One very disheveled looking Prue stormed into the room and glared at her sisters. One of her tank top straps was slipped off her shoulder and her jogging pants were hung a little lower on her hips than usual. Both sisters failed to notice the reddening blotches running down the side of her neck and across her exposed shoulder. In tow with her, she pulled a very sheepish looking Lilly into the room. Lilly was also in a similar state of disarray. Her damp, platinum hair was tousled about wildly and her shirt was pushed up to expose her stomach and the underwire of her bra. It took her a minute to realize that, but when she did, she used her free hand to tug it back into its place. The fingers of her other hand were laced with Prue's as she dragged her along to see what her sister had been screaming about, and the fact that they were holding hands made butterflies twirl madly about in her stomach.

"What did you guys do now?" Prue huffed angrily. Things had been just about to escalate between her and Lilly when Phoebe's panicked shouting had caused Lilly to stop doing the wonderful things she'd been doing to Prue's neck. Lilly stood partially behind Prue and brought her free hand up to rub the extremely tense girl's shoulder. She was worried about Phoebe, of course, but she also had other things on her mind.

"Me?" Piper asked as she turned towards her older sister. When she spotted Lilly and the red marks on Prue's neck, she instantly started grinning and blushed madly. "I didn't do anything, but it looks like you two were about to."

Prue gave her a look that was both taken aback that she'd known about what Lilly and she had been doing, and surprise that Piper hadn't been involved in Phoebe's raving madness. Lilly just began nuzzling her nose against the nape of Prue's neck, which caused the oldest brunette to give her hand a gentle squeeze while she resumed waiting for her youngest sibling's explanation.

"The pointer on the spirit board…! It moved on its own!" Phoebe tried to explain in a rush. Both of her hands were held up as if she were being held at gun point.

This caused Lilly to peer over Prue's shoulder and mutter, "No way," which caused Prue to smile slightly. Piper was looking at her sister as if she thought she was making the whole thing up.

"I'm serious! It pointed at the letters 'A.T.'"

"Well, did you push it?" Piper asked, causing Lilly to laugh softly against Prue's skin.

"No!" Phoebe cried in frustration.

"You always used to push the pointer," Prue pointed out after clearing her throat. It took almost everything in her to not moan out at the mere contact of Lilly's skin. Lilly took the throat clearing as a sign that it was time for her to stop, so she moved to stand beside Prue, looking at Phoebe with a grin plastered upon her face.

"My fingers were barely touching it!" Phoebe shouted in her own defense. When her eyes rested upon Lilly, she grinned back slightly before looking back at her sisters. "Look," she ordered them all.

Prue just tugged on Lilly's hand and they began walking back towards her bedroom while Piper turned to walk back into the kitchen. Just as they turned their backs, the pointer jerked towards another letter. "Ah! It did it again! It moved!" Phoebe cried.

The two sisters and Lilly all turned back towards the youngest Halliwell. Prue released Lilly's hand long enough to go over to look at the board. "It's still on the letter 'T'," she pointed out with a knowing smirk.

"I swear it moved," Phoebe said, desperation edging her voice.

"You know, she could be telling the truth," Lilly piped up, walking over to stand behind Prue again. "When I was little, I lived in Sunnydale. You remember me telling you about that, Prue, right?" Prue nodded to show that she remembered. "Yeah, I used to hang around with these two kids named Willow and Xander, and they always swore up and down that their Ouija board spelled things out on its own," she explained, thinking back upon her childhood before her family had uprooted and moved to San Francisco—where she'd met the love of her life, Prue.

Prue glanced over her shoulder at Lilly with a look that said, "Don't encourage her." Lilly hung her head in slight disappointment, and followed Prue when she turned around to go back to her bedroom.

Piper watched them walk away with a knowing grin. Now she didn't need the board to answer who her sister was going to have sex with, other than herself, this year. Phoebe letting out a startled gasp made her tear her attention away from the happy duo that seemed more like a couple now than anything.

"There! Look!" Phoebe cried as she backed away from the board, where the pointer was indeed moving on its own towards the letter "I". Piper's mouth dropped open and she took a timid step forward. "You saw that, right?" Phoebe asked.

"I…I think so. Yeah," Piper stammered as she walked closer.

"I told you I wasn't touching it," Phoebe defended herself once more.

The pointer again began moving on its own accord towards the letter "C". "Prue!" Piper called to her older sister, without taking her eyes off the moving piece of the toy. "Can you come in here a sec?"

"Now what?" Prue growled as she and Lilly reappeared in the room. Lilly once again stood behind the brunette, but this time, she occupied herself with twirling her fingers in the younger woman's luxurious hair with one hand as she slipped her other arm around Prue's waist. Prue fought the urge to close her eyes and lean back into the other woman's embrace, and instead kept her gaze firmly fixated upon her youngest sibling.

"It's trying to tell us something," Phoebe whispered shakily as she scribbled the letters down on a piece of paper. She was too wrapped up in what was happening in front of her to notice the loving caresses that Lilly was so obviously adorning her older sister with. Piper just ignored it, as she was too terrified to even speak.

Phoebe flipped the piece of paper towards the three women in front of her. "Attic…" she read. Lightning flashed outside the manor, and Prue's eyes were drawn towards the chandelier she'd been trying to fix earlier. Light was flickering in it, but it was blue in colour. Lilly pressed herself against Prue as if to protect her, and moved to wrap both of her arms around the brunette's waist.

"It's okay, sweetie," Prue whispered her green eyed now-lover. Another flash of lightning, and the power went out. The only light in the room was that from the moon and the dim glow of the candles Piper and Phoebe had lit earlier. Lilly rested her chin on Prue's shoulder and closed her eyes briefly. She wasn't afraid of the dark, just of what was in it. Prue, sensing Lilly's fear, reached up with one hand to gently stroke her cheek in a soothing way. "It's alright. I promise."

"Don't you think you're overreacting?" Prue asked her younger sister. "We are perfectly safe here." They were all walking towards the front doors while Phoebe made her way up to the attic. Lilly followed close behind Prue, with whom she was hand-in-hand with.

"Don't say that, Prue! In horror movies, the person who says that, is always the next to die," Piper pointed out as she continued to walk briskly towards the door.

"She's got a point, P," Lilly mumbled. "Although, isn't it normally the hot ass white chick who dies first? Oh, shit! I'm going down!" she teased to lighten the mood. She did succeed slightly, as she made Piper and Prue smile, but Prue always smiled when she was around Lilly.

Prue shook her head to get her mind back on track. "It is pouring the rain. There is a psycho on the loose. Jeremy's not even home!"

Piper began pulling on her coat as Lilly moved to stand in front of the door. "So, I'll…I'll…I'll wait in the cab until he gets home from work!" Piper explained.

"_That'll _be cheap!" Prue replied.

"Prue, I saw that pointer move!" Piper shouted. Lilly was slightly taken aback, as she'd never heard the middle sister raise her voice.

"No, what you saw was Phoebe's fingers pushing the pointer. There is nothing in the attic! She's playing a joke on us!" Prue tried to explain to her panicked sister.

"We don't know that! We've lived in this house for months, and we've never been able to get that attic door open!" Piper replied as she walked past her sister towards the phone. She picked it up and pushed down the dial button, pressing the phone to her ear. "Great! Now the phone doesn't work?"

"Yeah, the power's out. Look, just go with me to the basement."

"What?" Piper asked, as she wasn't sure if she heard her sister right.

"I need you to hold the flashlight while I check out the main circuit box."

"Why can't Lilly help you?" Piper asked rather insensitively. As soon as the words left her mouth, she instantly regretted saying them. As Lilly had been a family friend since Prue was in her preteens, all of the sisters knew her very well. Piper had just forgotten of her fear of the dark.

Lilly looked down at her feet and pretended to be very interested in the polish on her toes. She bit down hard on her lower lip, not entirely meaning to as hard as she had. So, she wasn't shocked when she tasted the bitter tang of blood in her mouth. Prue and Piper turned their heads toward their friend. "Lilly, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to—," Piper began, but was interrupted by Prue.

"Oh, honey, you're lip is bleeding!" Prue stepped forward and brought her hand up to cup Lilly's cheek. She let her thumb gently run across her lover's lips, wiping the blood away as she did so.

The blonde smiled sheepishly at Prue as the brunette wiped away her blood. Once the small trickle of blood was gone, Prue leaned in to share a quick kiss with her. With Lilly being Lilly, she eagerly returned the kiss and tried to deepen it, but Prue pulled away and eyed her with a steady gaze that promised to make up for this later.

Piper, having witnessed the exchange between the two women, looked the other way as Prue turned back towards her. She was happy that her sister had finally opened her eyes to see what she'd always had in front of her. Lilly was so much better than that damned Roger, and they all knew that. But, that still wasn't the matter at hand.

"So, will you help me?" Prue asked her sister.

"Uh…Phoebe will go with you to the basement, won't you, Phoebe?" Piper volunteered the youngest Halliwell as she walked into the room.

"Nope. I'm going to the attic," the youngest replied.

"No, you're not. We already agreed," Prue pointed out with a shake of her head.

"I am not waiting for some handyman to check out the attic, and I'm certainly not waiting until tomorrow. I'm going now," Phoebe stated matter-of-factly as she stomped her way up the stairs.

Lilly stepped forward and took Prue's hand in her own, intertwining their fingers. Prue, instantly forgetting all of her agitation towards the youngest sister, turned towards her lover with a questioning look. "I'll go down there with you, P. I'm not afraid…as long as I'm with you."

"Oh, baby, that's so sweet, but you don't have to," Prue assured the platinum blonde woman. "But, will you please go upstairs and try to talk some sense into Phoebe?"

Lilly looked slightly disappointed, but nodded her head in agreement. "Yeah, sure. I'll see what I can do with the twerp." She brushed her lips against Prue's before racing up the stairs after her friend.

After Lilly was out of sight, Prue fixed Piper with a glare that could kill before she turned on her heel and walked towards the basement door.

"Prue, wait!" Piper called after her sister. She easily caught up with her, and when she did, she grabbed her arm, turning the older brunette towards her. "Listen to me, Prue, and listen to me well. _Marry _that girl." Prue looked at her in utter shock. "I'm serious, Prudence. _Marry _her. She really is a keeper."

Prue offered her an awkward little half-grin and replied dreamily, "I know. She's amazing." She stopped when she realized what she was saying. "But don't you care that I'm with a woman? Grams would kill me."

"Hell no, sweetie! When I was in high school, I wasn't exactly the straightest stick in the bunch. I think Lilly's a great catch and you're lucky to have each other. I don't think Grams would mind too much. No matter who you love or whom you're with, you'll always be her granddaughter," Piper replied as she wrapped her arms around her older sister and dragged her into a tight embrace.

"Thank you, Piper," Prue said as she hugged her sister back. After they broke apart, she turned back towards the basement and went down to check the circuit box. It went without saying that Lilly was on her mind the entire time.


	5. Chapter 5

Lilly caught up to Phoebe with a discomforting ease. The brunette was obviously taking her time going up the stairs, peering around each little corner as if in search for some unspeakable evil. She would've thought that the Woogieman was lurking there if she didn't know for a fact that he lived in the basement, and he'd only come out when Phoebe decided to walk down there. "Pheebs," Lilly said as she reached out to touch the youngest Halliwell's arm.

"Ho! Whoa!" Phoebe cried as she spun around. Her heart was ramming against her ribcage from her start and she took a steadying breath when she saw it was only Lilly.

"Hey, twerp. What do you think you're doing?" the green eyed woman asked with a crooked grin.

Phoebe rolled her eyes and sighed in mock disappointment at the blonde. "What do you think I'm doing, Lil? The spirit board was trying to tell us something, and I feel just this…extreme urge…to listen to it. If it wants me to go to the attic, then that's damned well where I'm going. My sisters just won't listen to me!"

"Whoa, Pheebs. Calm down. If you feel the need to pursue this, that's awesome. I'm with ya one hundred percent, but you gotta take into consideration _why _they don't believe you." She trailed off as Phoebe cast her eyes downward in sadness. "Look, Pheebs. Prue will come around. Roger…? He was an ass. She was just hurt by him. If she doesn't come around, I'll talk some sense into her, alright?" Phoebe nodded to show that she understood and turned back to continue up the stairs. Lilly followed close behind her.

"So, what's up with you and Prue, anyway?" Phoebe asked as they approached the attic door.

"Oh, that's a story for another day, Pheebs. Just know that it's something _really _kick ass."

Phoebe smiled at her slightly southern accent and moved her flashlight so that the beam shone on the heavy wooden door to the attic. She walked forward and grasped the knob in her hand tightly, trying to turn it. It won't budge. She tried jiggling it and pushing herself against the frame and still it wouldn't budge. "You want to give it a try, Lil?" she asked slightly breathless as she stepped away from the door.

"Couldn't hurt," Lilly replied with a smirk forming on her lips. A devilish idea sprang to her mind and she ran towards the door, using the side of her arm as a battering ram. She braced herself for an impact that never came as she barreled into the attic and fell crashing to the ground. Looking back, she saw that the door had cracked open on its own.

"Oh, God! Lilly!" Phoebe cracked up as she ran into the attic to help her friend up. She kneeled beside the fallen blonde and chuckled down at her. "Are you always this graceful?" she asked sarcastically as she offered her hand to the older woman.

Lilly ignored Phoebe's outstretched hand and let her head flop back onto the wooden floor. A dull ache was starting to rise within her body from her fall, but she decided to pay it no mind. She'd probably pay for her rambunctiousness in the morning, anyway. "Reminds you of our teenage years, huh?" she asked as she recovered from having the air knocked out of her.

"Oh, like when you were trying to show off for Prue by swimming against the waves at the beach?" Phoebe smiled at her childhood memories. "But wait…didn't Prue jump in to save you because she thought you'd been under too long, even though she's afraid of water? Yeah, I remember, because then she pulled you out and she tried to give you mouth-to-mouth, but you just swatted her away and laughed."

Lilly grinned impishly. "Yeah, it was the second best day of my life. She so wanted to give me mouth-to-mouth." Phoebe raised her eyebrow as if to say, "Oh, really?" Lilly shook her head and laughed, struggling to get to her feet. Once she was up, Phoebe noticed that she was favoring one of her legs slightly, but decided not to mention it out of fear of getting hit. "We're on a mission, Pheebs. We can be secret agent men! Let's do it!" the white haired woman cheered enthusiastically as she bounded off into back of the attic, weaving her way around a pile of junk. Phoebe again noticed a subtle limp in her gait and contemplated saying something, but thought better of it.

"Wow, you Halliwells sure do keep a lot of shit," Lilly remarked as she shuffled through some old books upon a rickety bookshelf.

"Yeah. Grams never did want to throw anything away. She was a big believer in the three R's," Phoebe stated as she slowly moved to search the attic. The beam of her flashlight went over an old bed, a couch, and some chairs among other things.

"Hey, Pheebs. What's with the glowing box?" Lilly asked as she turned towards the stained glass windows that looked out onto the street. On a small clearing in front of them, there was indeed a chest that seemed to be flowing with an eerie light.

"I don't know," Phoebe mumbled as she took a few timid steps forward. She and Lilly reached the box at the same time, and gave each other puzzled looks. Phoebe sat her flashlight down on an old, time-worn table beside the chest so that it pointed at the glowing object. Lilly stood close by and watched as Phoebe opened the chest, incase anything unforeseen were to happen.

As Phoebe withdrew from the chest, she had in her hands an old and dust covered book. The binding was a light green in colour, greyed with a fine layer of grime. As the brunette closed the chest back, Lilly saw that the book had a weird symbol on its cover. It looked to be three pointed chain links that connected in the center with a circle going around them. Her brow furrowed in confusion as she looked down at the underside of her wrist. She cocked her head sideways as she stared at the tiny little tattoo that was needled into her skin a few years ago. It was the same as the symbol on the book, but she'd never seen the book before. She'd gotten that tattoo out of instinct, even though she'd never seen it before. Afterwards, she thought it looked kinda cool, and so she decided to keep it, instead of going through the painful process of removal.

When Lilly returned to the Land of the Living, she saw Phoebe sitting on the chest and holding the book in her lap. She brought it up near her lips and blew the dust off the front cover. Lilly inhaled a mouthful of the stuff and coughed slightly. She waved the dust motes away from her fact as Phoebe opened the book slowly.

"The Book of Shadows," Phoebe read as her eyes flitted across the worn page. Lilly settled down on the chest beside of her and peered over the brunettes shoulder. She looked towards the younger woman and saw her brow crease as she turned the page and read what the next said. "_Hear now the words of the witches, the secrets we hid in the night. The oldest of Gods are invoked here; the great work of Magic is sought. In this night and in this hour, I call upon the Ancient Power. Bring your powers to us sisters three! We want the power…. Give us the power…._"

Lilly sucked her teeth as Phoebe trailed off. "Well, that's a load of shit."

Downstairs in the dining room, where the chandelier hang, a swirling light appeared above its branches, shining down upon the ground with a brilliance that could be rivaled by none. The crystals hanging from the chandelier branches began to shake and clang against each other, creating soft tinkling noises like wine glasses being toasted repeatedly. The light grew in power as it enveloped the whole room. A picture on a cabinet which held the three sisters standing some feet apart evolved in such a way as to when it stopped changing, the sister's were standing side by side as they were brought together by some greater force.

"What are you guys doing?" Prue asked as her and Piper walked into the attic. Lilly grinned when she saw the sight of the eldest Halliwell. She jumped from where she sat and raced over the creaking floor to wrap her arms around her lover. Prue hugged the green eyed woman back and kept one hand on the small of her back when Lilly finally decided to pull away. Grinning mischievously, Lilly saw that a tiny sliver of Prue's skin was showing between the bottom of her tank top and the waistband of her trousers. With a gentle touch, she brought her hand up to trail random designs across the woman's delicate flesh.

"I know you were only gone for a few minutes, but I missed you," she whispered as she let her lips slightly brush against Prue's ear—which instantly turned red along with her cheeks as a blush rose to her face. Piper and Phoebe cleared their throats and smirked slightly at their older sister's embarrassment.

"I was…uh…reading. Right, Lilly?" Phoebe asked for back up as she closed The Book of Shadows and stood from where she sat upon the silver chest. Lilly nodded towards her skeptical lover and her sister to show that Phoebe was telling the truth. "But it was an incantation…" Phoebe admitted, sounding a little nervous. "It was in this Book of Shadows. I found it in that trunk." Phoebe walked over to join her siblings and Lilly as she showed them the book.

Prue stepped away from Lilly, who practically had to refrain from whimpering, to take the outstretched book into her own hands. "Let me see that," she mumbled as she opened it to its first pages.

"How did you guys get in here?" Piper asked incredulously.

Lilly blushed as Phoebe had to hold back from laughing at the memory of the recent "incidence." "The door just opened," Phoebe assured her older sister. Prue was scanning over the pages of The Book of Shadows while Lilly stood a few feet away from the trio, afraid that she might interrupt or get in the way of something important.

"Wait a minute! An incantation? What kind of incantation?" Piper asked as realization hit her. She put her hands on her hips and went into her stern and motherly stance.

"Eh…it said something about there being three essentials of Magic. Uh…Timing, Feeling, and the Phases of the Moon. If we were ever gonna do this. Now; midnight on a full moon is the most powerful time.

"This? Do what 'this'?" Piper and Lilly asked at the same time.

"You guys don't honestly believe in this, do you? I mean…I'm all down for the freaky and the supernatural, but magic? Like…pulling a rabbit out of a hat? Or even better, a rabbit pulling a magician out of a hat! You guys are actually considering this?" Lilly continued, which earned her looks from all three of the sisters. "What? Can't a girl be concerned?"

Prue moved one of her hands to the spine of the book, so it would be balanced properly as she freed her other and reached out towards Lilly. Frowning at her words and thinking she'd said something wrong, Lilly took Prue's hand and gave it a gentle squeeze, which was returned along with a loving glance.

"To…uh…receive our powers," Phoebe admitted as she, much like Piper had a habit of doing, wrung her hands together and grinned nervously.

"What powers?" Piper asked as she gave her sister a look that said she'd gone round the bend. "Wait! _Our _powers? You included me in this?"

"No," Prue said as she continued looking over the book. "She included all of us, except Lilly, of course. '_Bring your powers to us sisters three?'_ It's a book of witchcraft!"

"I feel so left out now, P," Lilly joked, hoping to lighten the mood between the vexed older siblings and the youngest. "Although, when you say witchcraft, a pleasant imagine comes to mind. I imagine you in a kinky, but somewhat tacky and too tight witch's costume."

"Let me see that," Piper instructed as she took the book away from her eldest sister, who was now blushing madly at Lilly's revelation. The other sister's were also repulsed at the mental image of what Lilly had just described, but they tried to ignore it.

"Hey, Lil. Do you think you can keep it in your pants for a couple of minutes?" Phoebe asked somewhat teasingly.

Lilly just smiled and laced her arms around Prue's waist from behind, placing a gentle kiss on the brunette's bare shoulder. "Not at all. At least, not when I'm around this one," she admitted freely as she tilted her head to give Prue's neck a taunting nip. Prue beamed and leaned back against the warm form of her once-friend turned-girlfriend. Her slightly cold hands snaked down her body until they were resting atop of Lilly's, whose were pressed tightly against her stomach as she held Prue close.

"That's disgusting," Phoebe stated as she grinned widely at the happy couple.


	6. Chapter 6

"Spirit boards? Books of witchcraft? Figures all this _freaky _stuff started when you arrived," Prue grumbled to her youngest sibling as the four women walked back downstairs. Lilly followed close behind Prue down the flight of stairs, and Lilly was followed by Phoebe, which left Piper to bring up the rear.

"Hey, I wasn't the one who found the spirit board," Phoebe replied in a defensive tone.

"It wasn't my fingers sliding around on the pointer," Prue growled back. Piper and Lilly just sighed as they gave up on try to make the sisters to quit bickering. When Prue opened her mouth to continue placing the blame all upon Phoebe, Lilly spoke up.

"Baby, it's not important right now. What's important is finding out what the hell is going on with the power." She spoke gently as to sooth Prue's agitation. "Just relax, sweetie." Prue sucked on her teeth as she became even more irate, but at Phoebe instead of Lilly.

"Lilly is right, guys. It doesn't matter," Piper agreed. "Nothing happened. Right, Phoebe? When you did that incantation?" Prue stepped off the stairs followed closely by the other women and shone her light into the other, darkened rooms.

"Well, my head spun around and I vomited split pea soup," Phoebe replied sarcastically. "How should I know?"

"Well, everything looks the same," Piper pointed out as she observed their home. It was normal for her to shrug off her little sister's bad attitude, as she was well used to it by now.

"Hey, and if it helps, I feel the same!" Lilly grinned proudly.

"Yeah, Lilly. That's real funny, because the 'incantation' didn't include you!" Piper replied. Lilly's expression changed from one of giddiness to one that was taken completely aback.

"I—I'm sorry…" she began, but was cut off by Prue.

"Don't be sorry. We're all just a little upset, sweetheart. She doesn't mean it. Right, Piper?" Prue directed the last part to her sister while Lilly just shrugged her shoulders to indicate that she wasn't put off by it. Piper nodded and reached out to put her hand comfortingly on the blonde's shoulder.

"Sorry, Lilly."

"It's fine," she replied coolly.

"But, she's right, though. I feel the same and the house looks the same," Phoebe piped up.

"But the house still needs work," Prue added as the four of them began moving away from the stairs.

"If everything looks and feels the same, then nothing's changed, right?" Piper asked the other women. All of them walked through the dining room and past the altered picture in the silver frame, not paying it any mind.

"Not that I can tell," Lilly replied as the other Halliwell sisters nodded in agreement. She pushed her now-dry platinum hair over her shoulder and leaned against a wall, moving her leg back and forth in the hopes of working some of the stiffness out of it.

"Something wrong with your leg, Lilly?" Prue asked as she leaned against the wall beside Lilly. Phoebe and Piper stood in front of them with Phoebe wearing an extremely guilty look.

"Ah, it's nothing, love. I just took a little tumble. Right, Pheebs?" Lilly cast the younger woman a raised-eyebrow look that said, "Back me up here, twerp."

"Yeah. She tripped up in the attic," Phoebe replied, not sounding convincing at all.

"And you didn't tell me?" Prue asked in disbelief. She turned towards Lilly and eyed her with worry. "Are you alright?" She bit her lip in an utterly adorable, panic-stricken look as she brought her hand up to gently push Lilly's razor-cut bangs away from her face.

Lilly smiled and quickly leaned in to peck Prue on the lips. "Don't worry about me, P. I'm _fine_," she stated.

Prue's brow creased in concern as she ran her thumb over Lilly's cheekbone. "I can't help it."

"Aren't they just adorable?" Piper whispered to her younger sister.

Phoebe nodded in reply. "I'm glad Prue's finally found someone who's so good to her. What makes it even more amazing is that it's Lilly. She's practically been a part of our family sense we were kids."

"So, you're alright with her being with another woman?" Piper asked, just to be sure.

"Of course! Piper, I lived in New York. We live in San Francisco. It's not that big of a deal. Besides, I've been with a few girls in my time. I mean, it's nothing I could stick to permanently, but its fun every now and again."

"Pheebs…there are some things an older sister never wants to hear. That is one of the most—"

"We can hear you, you know," Prue laughed in response to her sisters' enthusiastic gossip. Piper and Phoebe narrowed their eyes and wore blameworthy looks as Prue turned to face them while Lilly just smiled at them from behind her. "We appreciate your guys' approval, though," Prue continued. Though she was angry with her youngest sister, she was still thankful for their support.

Lilly pushed away from the wall and moved to stand beside Prue, who she proceeded to teasingly bump hips with. "You guys are the best," she stated with a smile. Prue bumped her back and she dramatically mock stumbled to the side with a yelp, causing them all to grin. Once she stood back up, she stood back beside Prue and put an arm around her. "Now, we've done our jobs, so can we go to bed, now?"

Piper and Phoebe looked at each other and barely refrained from giggling. "Whereas some of us are actually tired, others just want to do naughty things with each other," Phoebe taunted the couple. Piper bit down on her tongue to keep herself from laughing as Prue went wide-eyed and tried to act innocent.

"Hey, in Prue's defense, she hadn't known about my plans…yet," Lilly replied as she ran her fingers through the brunette's short hair. "So, why don't you two mosey on off to beddie-bye land while we get to workin' on the baby-making process?"

Piper tilted her head sideways in confusion. "Unless I fell asleep in health class, I'm pretty sure that it's impossible for two girls to do the actual 'baby-making process.'"

Lilly smirked and continued to play with Prue's hair. "Exactly, this is why we need tons, and tons, and tons of practice. We're not stopping until one of us is impregnated, and since that'll never happen…" She looked at Prue who seemed to be thoroughly enjoying Lilly's fingers working through her hair. "…Prue's in for a long night."

Piper made a disgusted face while Phoebe looked away from the green eyed woman in embarrassment. "Okay," Piper sighed. "You two have fun, but not TOO much fun. Remember that you two have to go to work tomorrow."

"Ah, tomorrow's going to be a clunker at work. We can sleep then," Lilly suggested as Prue suddenly grabbed her hand and began pulling her towards the stairs.

"You have no shame, you know?" the brunette asked teasingly as they ascended the stairwell. Lilly just smiled and allowed herself to be dragged into the bedroom.


	7. Chapter 7

The next day, all signs of rain were gone. One would think that the storm had never happened if it wasn't for the few traces of evidence. Children splashed in the puddles upon the ground as their parents or guardians ushered them on. Where the sun had yet to touch, damp spots turned the ground darker where they were hidden in the shadows. There wasn't a cloud in the sky about the bustling city of San Francisco, but the humidity was through the roof, and it was wreaking havoc upon a certain platinum blonde's hair.

Phoebe Halliwell was sitting back upon the stoop in front of her new, old home. She sighed as she let the rays from the sun caress the already-tanned skin of her face. She wasn't looking to do anything important on her second day back home, so she was still in her pajamas with a light jacket wrapped around her shoulders. Looking around the neighborhood, she shifted her fingers against the warm coffee mug she was holding. She was broken from her train of thought as Piper walked out of the doorway of their home, apparently on her way somewhere. Phoebe acknowledged her with a smile as she looked over her shoulder.

"You're up early," Piper stated as Phoebe turned away from her to stare out into the streets again. Piper closed the door behind her and walked to stand beside of her younger sister.

"I never went to sleep," Phoebe explained with a sigh.

"Don't tell me you put on a black conical hat and spent the night flying around the neighborhood on a broomstick," Piper quipped, causing Phoebe to chuckle. Piper grinned at her sister as she sat down on the stoop beside her.

"The only broom I've ever had was kept in a closet beside a mop," the youngest Halliwell replied as she brought her mug up to take a sip of the scorching liquid within. She closed her eyes as the coffee burned its way down her throat.

"So, what were you doing?" Piper asked gently.

"Reading," Phoebe answered truthfully. "Is Prue around? Speaking of which, that's also part of the reason why I didn't go to sleep last night. Let's just say that the walls are _really_ thin, Lilly must be _really_ good in bed, and Prue's a screamer."

"Aw, that's gross, Pheebs!" Piper groaned as she shut her eyes and looked in another direction. "But, no, she and Lilly went to work early, I think. They carpooled since Lilly came here in a taxi. Although, apparently, I don't see how they didn't oversleep! … Prue's a screamer?"

"Oh, yeah. Lots of screaming. How did you not hear it? Lilly's really loud, too. I was even watching television at one point to drown them out, but they ended up being louder than my volume could be. I didn't even know Prue could _do _that stuff," Phoebe ruefully explained as she shook her head in slight disgust.

"So…many…unwanted visuals," Piper gagged.

"Although, I'm kind of tempted to steal Lilly from her if she's _that _good in bed!" Phoebe said jokingly. Her smile died away as Piper shot her an angry look. "What? I was just joking!"

"I wouldn't joke that way around Prue, Pheebs. And, Lilly's liable to kick your ass," Piper stated as she shook her head slightly and glanced out into the street. "But anyway, were you reading aloud?"

Phoebe rolled her eyes at her sister. "_No_, but according to The Book of Shadows, one of our ancestors was…a witch named Melinda Warren."

Piper looked at her skeptically and replied, "And we have a cousin who is drunk, an aunt who's manic, and a father who's invisible." The older Halliwell stood from where she sat and began walking towards her vehicle.

"I'm serious!" Phoebe called while following after her. "She practiced powers; THREE powers. She could move objects with her mind, see the future, and stop time. Before Melinda was burned at the stake, she vowed that each generation of Warren witches would become stronger and stronger culminating in the arrival of three sisters." Piper opened the door and put her purse and jacket into the passenger seat of her jeep while keeping a skeptical look on her face. "Now these sisters would be the most powerful witches the world has ever known. And—and, I think we're those sisters."

Piper slammed the door of her vehicle closed and turned to face her sister. "Look, I know what happened last night was weird and unexplainable—especially the screamer part…gross—but we are NOT witches and we do not have special powers! Besides, Grams wasn't a witch and as far as we know, neither was mom." Piper leaned over to peck Phoebe on the cheek before turning to get into her jeep. "So, take that, Nancy Drew."

"We're the protectors of the innocent!" Phoebe warned as Piper closed the door behind her and buckled her seatbelt. "We're known as The Charmed Ones!" Her voice raised an octave or two and her tone was that of a child trying to entice another child into doing something bad. Piper just rolled her eyes and drove away, leaving her sister behind with a pout on her face.

At the American Museum of Natural History—Lilly and Prue's place of employment—one of the girls' colleagues was walking the new couple through a closed exhibit. The two women walked so closely together that their shoulders or hands would occasional brush together and cause them both to smile. Of course, their minds were groggy from their lack of sleep, but the night before had been well worth it in their opinions. "There's been a change of plans," the man with thick glasses and a clip-on tie explained to them.

"Change of plans?" Prue echoed as she crossed one hand over her stomach while looking extremely perplexed. "Regarding the Beals expedition?" Lilly subtly put her hand against the small of her lover's extremely tense back as they walked on. Unfortunately for her, she'd been reprimanded twice at work today because her eyes had been all over Prue. The reasons being were that, well…it was _Prue_; another was that Roger worked with them; and the other being that the brunette had worn a low-cut, long-sleeved, and sexy as hell black top with long, formal trousers that matched in colour. Lilly _loved _Prue in black, but she _loved _Prue in anything…or nothing. However the day went….

The story was about the same for Prue, only no one had caught her. Lilly had stayed the night at the Halliwell manor due to the storm, and a few other reasons, but she had come unprepared…namely without a uniform for the next day. So, after a long shower between the two women (who used up all the hot water, making for one very agitated Piper), Prue had shuffled through her closet until she found something suitable for Lilly to wear to work. They both wore the same size in just about everything, so it was to be expected that they swapped clothing every time the chance arose.

Lilly's outfit consisted of a light forest green top under a matching—but slightly darker—professional-looking jacket; a harmonizing knee-length, skin hugging skirt that seemed to attract all eyes to her ample bottom and bare, slender legs ; and the same coloured heels…which had actually been Phoebe's. She wore the almost tuxedo-looking jacket buttoned about halfway up, putting emphasis on her modest chest. While it barely passed regulation rules, no one said a word to her over it. Lilly's straight, platinum hair was pulled back into a loose ponytail, with a few wisps hanging around her face. Her razor-cut bangs hung in her eyes as normal, but it looked nice on her. The outfit really tied together well, thanks to Prue's sense of style.

"The extra money that you two helped raise through private donations has sparked significant corporate interest. The Beals artifacts will now become part of our permanent collection."

"Well, that's terrific," Lilly and Prue said in their "professional" voices simultaneously. Lilly's face remained expressionless as she gazed upon her colleague.

"…Which is why the board wants someone a little more qualified to handle the collection from now on…. You girls look surprised!" Roger continued with a smirk on his face as he pushed his glasses further up his nose.

Prue's brow crinkled as she gazed up at her ex through hate-filled eyes. "I don't know why. I'm furious! Not only have I been on this project since its inception, but I'm the curator who secured the entire exhibition!" Lilly snaked her hand up Prue's back and placed it comfortingly upon her shoulder.

"But you're the person 'a little more qualified', aren't you?" Lilly asked. Her voice was low and her tone was filled with a thousand death threats. Prue stiffened beside of her, and Lilly didn't blame her for her anger. Hell, Lilly was just as outraged.

Roger smirked and let his gaze slide back and forth between the two extremely pissed off women. "I could hardly say no to the board of directors, could I? But I know you two will be happy for me. After all, what's good for me is definitely good for you, Prue, and I know Lilly 'always wants what's best for you.' Right, Miss Halliwell…Miss Scotts?"

Lilly pursed her lips and restrained herself from taking a step forward, but she could feel her anger boiling, and she was ready to burst. She removed her hand from Prue's shoulder and flexed them. When her hands would ball up, the skin would stretch so tightly over her knuckles that they looked bone white.

"Lilly, don't," Prue hissed. She turned her attention back to Roger as she continued, "Miss Scotts…Miss Halliwell? Since when did we all stop being on a first-name-basis? When I stopped sleeping with you or when I returned your engagement ring, _Roger_?"

Lilly smirked at her girlfriend's comeback, but it died away as soon as Roger thought out a reply.

"I didn't realize the two were mutually exclusive. Although, I certainly enjoyed one better than the other." His eyes roamed slowly down Prue's body and then back up before he gave a smarmy grin, which caused Prue to look away and frown in an upset manner. That was what broke Lilly. She stormed towards the man who had "fucked, then chucked" the love of her life. She pointed her finger in his face and squared her shoulders as she prepared to tell him off. Although she was a good three inches shorter than him, she looked menacing enough to scare the toughest of men.

"Ah, ah, ah," Roger clucked as he waggled his finger at the blonde. "Watch what you say, Miss Scotts, or it could be your job."

Lilly's pupils widened as her rage hit somewhere above level OMEGA. "FUCK my job! No one talks to Prue like that, you fucking piece of low-life scum. You are damn _lucky _that there are people here who could hold me back—not that any of them would—or I would rip your hairless little prick off before you even got the chance to _learn _how to use it properly, and shove it so far up your ass that you'd taste the damned tiny thing for weeks! Hell, I get more chicks that you do, _Roger_! Fuck! I'm probably even better in bed than you are, too! So, tell the board of directors to get their thumbs out of their asses long enough to see who _really _deserves to lose his job!"

As Lilly lapsed into silence, Prue and Roger both looked at her with taken aback expressions. Neither of them had expected her to defend the slender brunette so fiercely, but she had, and Prue had never felt more loved. Despite the fact that Roger was being an ass (as usual), the blue eyed woman felt a happiness welling within her heart that she couldn't even begin to put into words to explain. This feeling was pushed aside, however, as Roger's irritating smirk found its way back to his face.

"Well, someone's all fired up…. So, Lilly, how would you like to come to my place tonight and let me show you just how 'properly' I can use it and how great I am in bed? Prue was with me for _some _reason, you realize," he stated confidently.

"I bet it wasn't for your 'skills' in the bedroom! Tell me, Roger, did she ever scream your name loud enough to wake people in other rooms? Did she ever writhe beneath you and cry out from the sheer intensity of making love to you? No, I think not," Lilly growled.

Roger chuckled coolly and kept his gaze steady with Lilly's. "Why don't you ask _her _those questions? Or even better yet, ask her sister."

Lilly bared her teeth in a vicious snarl as she pulled her first back. "You little—," she began but was cut off as Prue grabbed her arm and tugged her away.

"Bastard!" Prue barked as she turned away and dragged one fuming Lilly with her. The blonde kept looking back over her shoulder with eyes glazed over by visions of death towards the shit bag Prue called her ex.

"Prue, wait!" Roger called after the upset brunette. She continued to hold onto Lilly as she looked over her shoulder towards him. "I feel like I should say something, if only to avoid a lawsuit." Prue turned her hurt eyes away from him and walked briskly out of the door, pulling Lilly behind her. The blonde's anger was completely forgotten as she saw the tears streaming down her girl's cheeks.

"Prue, sweetheart, he's not worth it. Please, don't cry," she mumbled softly. She spun the weeping woman around and wrapped her long arms around her. Prue, in response, clasped her arms around Lilly's waist and sobbed quietly into her shoulder. As they were standing in a heavily trafficked hallway in the museum, Prue's crying was attracting a lot of attention. Lilly met all of their gazes with a terrifying glare that sent them on their way as she rubbed her lover's back soothingly and whispered sweet nothings in her ear.

Back in the exhibit room Roger was in; a pen broke in his pocket and spilled blue ink all over his white shirt. He cursed under his breath as he pulled the pen out of his pocket and tried to find where the leak had come from. As he pointed the ball-point end towards his face, it splattered the same blue ink across his face.


	8. Chapter 8

At the "L'OPERA RISTORANTE", Piper was slaving away over a hot stove in the kitchen. On the burner in front of her, she was stirring what looked to be a chunky, brown stew. In reality, it was a sad excuse for a restaurant's refried beans that Piper was trying to fix, or at least make edible…whichever one came first. She brought the ladle up to her mouth as if to taste it, but then thought better of it and walked over to another counter, where she began pouring the Port Jeremy had sent her in a measuring cup. A concentrated look fixed itself upon her face as she tried to pour out the perfect amount needed.

A man walked into the kitchen and clapped loudly, breaking her concentration. Piper turned towards him and saw that it was the main chef, and he was wearing a fashion disaster. Around his neck, where an apron should be, sat what appeared to be a badly done bowtie. The first button of his white, button-up shirt was undone as if it were meant to be sexily showing off his chest hair. She supposed it was to make him seem macho, but it really only made him seem slightly odd.

"Your time…is up!" he announced in a very bad French accent. Piper opened her mouth to object, but the chef walked over to her dish and began gathering some of it up on a silver fork. "Let's see…" He glanced over at the recipe. "Roast pork with gratin of fennel and penne with a Port giblet sauce, eh?"

Piper walked over to him and wrung her hands together. "Uh…Chef Moore?"

"What?" he asked as he looked her over.

"Uh…the Port…" Piper stammered as she turned around to look for the measuring cup full of wine she'd just poured.

"Yes, without the sauce, it is nothing more than a salty marinara. A recipe from a woman's magazine. Puh!" he exclaimed as if he would spit upon the dish to bring dishonor to it. Piper just stared at him for a moment with a disgruntled expression before realizing why she had objected in the first place.

"I didn't have time for—," she began but was cut off.

"Ah-ah!" the French chef cut her short. He held his hand up for silence as he looked back down at her dish.

"But…! But…!" Piper waved her hands around as he put some of it on a fork and began raising it to his mouth. As she waved her hands in one particular direction, Chef Moore stopped moving all together. It was like he was frozen solid as he stood there like a statue. He neither breathed nor blinked as he just stood there. "Chef Moore?" Piper asked. "Chef Moore?" she repeated as she waved her hands in front of his face. "Hello? Hello…?" Seeing this as a perfect opportunity, she seized the moment and picked up a metal baster and filled it with some of the wine that she'd received as a gift. Just as she turned and dribbled some of it on the chef's forkful of food, he seemingly unfroze and pooped it into his mouth.

His grinned as the multiple flavors of Piper's dish rolled over his tongue, his expression going into one of absolute bliss as he chewed slowly. "Mm…this is very good. C'est magnifique…!" Piper nodded her head slightly as she tried to wrap her mind around what had just happened.

At the Museum of Natural History, Roger sat in his office with a phone held close to his ear. He was laid back in a comfortable leather chair as he looked out of the window at the city below. He was only half-listening to the person who was on the other end of the line as his thoughts were mainly on how Lilly had spoken to him. He knew she was Prue's best friend, because the two had been inseparable when he had been with her, but that was taking things to a new level. "_If Prue is having a lesbian affair with her coworker…that will ruin her career…. I can't wait to see her fall_," he thought as a grin wormed its way across his lips.

The person on the other end of the line cleared their throat and brought him back to reality. "It was my idea to spark corporate interest from private donations. Not only have I been with this project since its inception—." He trailed off as a very upset looking Prue and a very irate looking Lilly walked into his office. Lilly slammed the door behind her without taking her scowling gaze away from the irksome little man. As Roger turned towards them, Lilly made a show of gently putting one of her arms around the brunette, who leaned on her slightly for support. "Prudence…. Lillian…."

"I quit," Prue mumbled while meeting his gaze evenly.

To the person on the other end of the phone, Roger said, "I'm going to have to call you back." He set the phone down back in its cradle and fixed the duo with a hard stare. "You need to think about this, Prue…" he warned.

"I quit, too, dipshit," Lilly added with a smirk as she trailed her fingers up and down Prue's side. She was trying to offer the brunette some comfort while doing what she knew to be a difficult task. At one point, the younger woman had tried to convince herself that she'd been in love with Roger, but Lilly knew that she was just with him out of pity. Now, she _knew _that Prue loved her, and she wasn't going to let anything hurt the blue eyed girl. "With Prue, so goes my nation."

"Lillian, I suggest you think on this, too," Roger stated, not wanting to lose two of his best curators…no matter who they were or how much he despised them. If he lost them, he would lose everything. The board of directors would _not _be happy with him at all, to say the least.

"Lousy job, lousy pay, lousy _boss_. What's to think about?" Prue asked as she slipped out of Lilly's grasp and walked towards the man she used to sleep with.

"Your future together," Roger replied smoothly. "Because believe me, if you walk out with no notice, you can kiss any references—!" His voice rose in tone as he continued, but Lilly cut him off with a growl.

"Do _not _threaten her, Roger. Do I need to remind you about what I said I'd do to you earlier? There is no one around us, and certainly no one who would stop me," she explained as she stepped forward to stand partially in front of Prue. She was determined to do everything she could to protect the woman she loved, and it was evident to Prue with everything she did.

Roger swallowed nervously and straightened his tie as he looked over Lilly's shoulder at Prue. "You know me; had to try. You're hurt, you're angry, your pride is wounded. I understand all that. That's why you can't see that I'm doing you a favor."

"What? Of all the bloody—"

"No, Lilly. I want to hear this," Prue muttered gently. "Excuse me?"

Roger beamed at the fact that she'd scolded her friend so she could listen to him. Of course, now he had to pull something out of his ass, so she wouldn't know he'd been lying. "I had to take the exhibit away from you. If I hadn't, the board would have come and put a total stranger in my place. Think about it, Prue. I'm here for you. Not some stranger. You should be thanking me, not leaving me."

Lilly restrained herself from saying what she really wanted to. Prue was a big girl, and could handle this shit weasel on her own. If Prue needed her, she'd step in, but the slender brunette seemed to be on top of things.

"Well, I'm not worried. I'm certain that your intellect will make quick work of the seventy-five or more computer discs and thousands of pages of research that Lilly and I have left in our offices," Prue quipped sarcastically with a smirk.

The corners of Roger's mouth turned down into a worried frown as he realized the loads of work that he'd have to do if they quit. "You two are going to regret this," he growled as he stood from his chair and walked around his desk towards Prue. He was immediately intercepted by Lilly who squared her shoulders and blocked his way.

"Oh, I don't think so. I thought breaking up with you was the best thing I'd ever done. But this and the fact that Lilly and I are together now definitely tops that. Oh, and yes, she is _extremely _better in bed that you were. Goodbye, Roger," Prue remarked with a grin as she took Lilly's hand in her own and the two began walking towards the door.

"I—I hope there are no office supplies in your purses!" the taken aback man called after them. Prue stopped outside of his door and wrapped her hands around an imaginary neck. Lilly laughed at her girl's antics and pulled Prue along.

Back in Roger's office, his tie had tightened around his neck and began choking him. As he coughed and spluttered for breath, he struggled to open a drawer within his desk to grab a pair of scissors. As his hands finally lay upon the handle of the instrument, he immediately cut the tie off and took in a gulp of air. "What the HELL was that?" he shouted as he fell backwards in his chair.

As Lilly and Prue walked out of the museum building, the blonde gave Prue's hand a gentle squeeze and sighed wistfully. The brunette looked over at her lover with a small smile gracing her lips and asked, "What is it, sweetheart?" She squint her eyes against the sunlight which made Lilly's hair—that was practically the colour of snow—glow beautifully.

Lilly cast her emerald eyes downward before replying, "I just…have to leave you and go back to my apartment with Mark. He's going to wig out when he finds out that I'm without a job. He'll probably kick me out."

Prue stopped them on the sidewalk and pulled Lilly over to the opening of a small alleyway. It was cramped between the two buildings, but it was out of the way of the mobs of people swarming the streets. The brunette stepped closer towards the blonde and brought a hand up to stroke her cheek. Lilly smiled slightly as she nuzzled against Prue's palm. "You should _know _that you're more than welcome to stay with us anytime. Maybe…_now_…you'll be coming over more frequently," she stated as she bit her lip and looked into Lilly's eyes in a seductive manner.

A look passed between them that had them both grinning from ear to ear as Lilly hugged Prue tightly. Prue laughed as she held onto her lover. "Anytime you want me, sweetheart, I'll be there," Lilly whispered as she pulled away from her girlfriend. "Let's…um…go back to my apartment…. Mark shouldn't be home for awhile, so we could—uh—pop in a movie, lounge on the couch, or just do…whatever, until you feel the need to go home." From the way she refused to meet Prue's eye and by the way that she seemed at a loss for words, Prue knew that Lilly had a lot more on her mind than just watching a movie.

Prue turned her head to kissed Lilly's cheek, letting her lips linger against her deliciously pale skin for a few short moments. "Okay, let's get going," she replied with a brilliant smile.

Piper tapped her foot on the floor of the telephone booth she was standing in. "Phoebe, answer the phone…. Answer the phone!" she muttered as her heart raced in her chest. It was slamming so hard against her ribcage that she was sure it was going to bust out of her chest. The ringing in her ear seemed endless, so with a frustrated growl, she slammed the phone back against the receiver. As she opened the door to the booth and stepped out, her eyes were cast downward as confusing thoughts raced through her mind. She looked up when she almost ran into someone with a startled gasp.

"Oh, _God_, Jeremy! You scared me!" she gasped to her boyfriend.

"I—I—I can see. I'm sorry," he replied as he held his hands up as if to assure her that he wasn't going to do anything. "Are you okay?"

Piper's hand was pushing against her chest—against her thumping heart—as she replied, "Yeah. Now, I am. I really am. Um…what are you doing here?"

The man smiled down at her and clasped his hands together in front of him, as if guilty of some benign crime. "Well, I wanted to be the first to congratulate you on your new job."

Piper smiled as she shook her head. "You always surprise me. How did you know?"

"You prepared your specialty, and everyone who's ever sampled your work can truly see how talented you are," he replied as if it should be blatantly obvious.

"I get _so _turned on when you talk about food," Piper teased as he reached out and took her hands in his.

He grinned at her wickedly as he gave her hands a gentle squeeze and leaned in towards her lips. "Hotdogs, hamburgers, pizza…." Piper pressed her lips against his and felt her own lips smile into their embrace.

Phoebe was riding her bike through a few quiet streets of San Francisco. She didn't feel like going far from home in case something happened, but she still felt the need to get out and about. Maybe it was time to reacquaint herself with her old neighborhood's layout.

Her white jacket billowed out behind her as she slowly peddled out onto the road. Her feet went round on the bike peddle as she as she worked to turn the chain to propel herself up the slightly inclined road when she suddenly went rigid. Before her very eyes, a scene in black and white played out. She saw two little boys rollerblading in the same street she was on. Like all little boys, they were playfully pushing each other to try to knock the other off balance. They were chasing each other down and across the hill she was currently going up, and they didn't see the car speeding down the hill. Before either party could stop, the car slamming into the two boys, throwing them down onto the road.

When Phoebe came to, her eyes went straight to the car she'd seen in her "vision". It was speeding down the hill just like she'd seen and the boys were heading straight towards it. "NO!" she yelled out. "WAIT!" She pushed herself to peddle faster, hoping to cut them off before the upcoming collision could occur.

She swerved the bike in front of them, successfully cutting them off, but in doing so, she ran in front of the car and toppled off her bike. She groaned as she bike landed on top of her and her body skidded to a halt on the concrete road. The driver of the car and the two boys all stooped down beside her to see if she was okay.

From underneath a mail van a few feet away, a strange Siamese feline watched the event through wide, blue eyes. A red collar around its neck glimmered in the sun as the light caught on the strange symbol on its tag.


	9. Chapter 9

The sun was sinking below the horizon by the time Prue and Lilly got word of what had happened to Phoebe. Piper had called Prue's cell phone—which Lilly had insisted on her answering—during the few minutes Lilly would allow her to come down from one of her many peaks in their love making. Prue's eyes had gone wide with worry as she pushed the sheet they were under off of her, exposing her nude form to the chilled air in Lilly's apartment. A shiver had gone down her spine as Piper relayed the tale. She had begun searching around the small apartment for her clothing when Lilly came up behind her and wrapped her arms around the brunette. "Let me drive you to the hospital," Lilly had insisted as she placed a gentle kiss upon the woman's bare shoulder blade before she too went to search for her clothes. Once they'd found all of their clothing items and fixed themselves up properly, they had raced out the door and down to Lilly's car right as her roommate pulled into the parking lot.

"Hello, Lilly. Hello, Prue," Mark had greeted the two women civilly as he stepped out of his car.

"Mark, we haven't really got the time," Lilly replied as she gave him her best apologetic look.

He nodded his head as if in understanding. "I just wanted to know if you were going to be home tonight or if you were going to be out whoring around with your friends again," he stated, his voice sounding hard and filled with disgust.

Lilly turned her eyes towards Prue, who was looking at Mark in complete and utter shock. "Get in the car, Prue," Lilly growled as she walked around the jeep towards her flat mate. Prue nodded her head slightly as she was too groggy from her lack of sleep and from their passionate evening to argue. Once she was seated in the car and buckled in, she turned her head to look through the window at Lilly's backside. She smiled as she thought about how cute her girlfriend was. It was everything about her, from the top of her head down to the tips of her toes. She was utterly beautiful, but then again, Prue had always known that.

"Look, Mark, I wasn't home last night because I went to Prue's to check on her. Our boss gave her a hard day at work yesterday, and I thought she could use a friend. I stayed with her last night because of the storm, not because I was whoring about with my friends. Even if I was, it's none of your damned business what or who I do. Just to clue you in here, NO, I _won't _be 'home' tonight, because Prue's sister is in the hospital and I'm going to see what I can do for them. Besides, I'd rather sleep out on the _streets _than come 'home' to someone like you," Lilly remarked as her temper got the better of her.

As she turned around to get into her vehicle, Mark decided to speak up. "I expect you to be here within the next week to clear your things out of my apartment."

Lilly glanced over her shoulder at her equivalent to Roger and sneered. "Whatever you say, Mark." Without another word or look, she'd gotten into the driver's seat of her car and drove towards the hospital. Throughout the entire ride, Prue had her hand placed comfortingly upon Lilly's thigh as if to calm her down. It had been working until they got into the hospital where she'd seen an all-too familiar face that had set her mind to worrying that Prue might leave her.

Prue walked up to the nurses' station with Lilly right behind her and stood beside a familiar looking man while waiting for one of the nurse's attention. "Hi—um—I'm looking for my sister, Phoebe Halliwell." Lilly moved to lean against the counter in the hopes of blocking Prue's view of the man beside them. She smiled whenever Prue glanced her way, but her eyes betrayed her inner turmoil. Prue didn't notice at first as she was too wrapped up in trying to figure out how and where her sister was, but after a few glances, she saw that Lilly was struggling with something, but the nurse's reply broke her train of thought.

"One second, please," the nurse said as she turned to the man next to them. "What's the name again?"

"_Well, fuck…_" Lilly thought as she gave up all hopes of avoiding a reunion between the three of them or, if her fears were confirmed, a reunion between two of them on a deeper level. She moved out of the way and let her head hang slightly. Prue's eyes followed her questioningly, but Lilly just shook her head and went over to take a seat in one of the plastic chairs strewn about the waiting room. She crossed her legs and folded her hands neatly in her lap. As she stared down at her fingers, tears began filling her eyes as the unbidden thought of never being able to hold Prue's hand again flashed through her mind. She tried to push the notion away, but no matter how hard she tried, it always came back twice as hard.

"Inspector Andrew Trudeau. Homicide. Dr. Gordon's expecting me," replied the man standing next to Prue coolly.

"Andy?" Prue asked in astonishment, turning her attention away from her distressed girlfriend.

"Prue? I don't believe it. How are you?" he asked politely as he turned around to face her completely.

"I'm good. How are you?" she replied. Lilly chose this time to look up and saw Prue's stance change from one that was rigid and full of worry to one that indicated that she was trying to flirt. The corners of the blonde's lips turned down as more tears welled up in her eyes, making her vision go blurry. Her chin trembled slightly as she tried to keep from crying out. She'd _just _gotten to _finally _be with Prue, and now a blast from her past was stealing her away already.

"Fine. I just can't believe I'm running into you," Andy exclaimed as he grinned widely at his old friend.

"Yeah, I'm picking up Phoebe. She had some kind of…accident," Prue informed the inspector.

"Is she gonna be okay?" Andy asked with real concern.

"Yeah, she'll be fine. Um, what are you doing here?" Prue asked as Lilly stood from her seat and began walking towards them.

"Murder investigation," he replied quickly before the blonde reached them. "Oh, my God. And Lilly, too? How are you?" His smiled widened as he finally recognized the platinum haired woman. "You've grown up so much since the last time I seen you," he added fondly as memories of the trio hanging out together in their teenage years filled his mind.

"Yeah. I'm fine," Lilly replied as if brushing him off. She turned towards Prue who gave her a questioning look as she reached out to take the blonde's hand in hers. Lilly just sighed and pulled her hand away from the brunette. "Prue, I'm going to go out for a smoke," she informed her.

"Old habits die hard?" Andy asked as he also gave Lilly a questioning look. The last he time remembered ever hearing Lilly talk about smoking was when she was telling them how her now-late mother had caught her and had almost killed her. She'd then decided to give up the stuff for good.

"Yeah," Lilly replied as she cast her eyes downward so she wouldn't see the hurt in Prue's blue eyes. "So, I'll be out there if you need me," she said to the hurt brunette standing in front of her.

"Lilly, you haven't smoked in over thirteen years," Prue pointed out in a gentle voice, wondering what she'd done to warrant Lilly's cold attitude towards her.

"Well, like Trudeau said, old habits die hard," she replied as her voice went hard and emotionless with her jaw set firmly.

Prue sighed and closed her eyes for a brief moment. Sometimes she wished she could read Lilly's mind, but Lilly was a very complex person and far from an open book. "Okay," Prue caved. "Just be careful." She stepped forward to embrace her upset lover, but Lilly took a step back right as she made to move.

"I think I can take care of myself, P," the blonde mumbled before she turned and walked towards the sliding hospital doors. As she walked out of sight, the conversation between Andy and Prue died off into an awkward silence. Prue could feel her heart breaking slowly as she tried to shuffle through her memories to recall what she might've done to upset her love.

Outside of the hospital, Lilly stood in a designated smoking area with her back pressed against the cool stone of the building. The breeze that stirred the humid, nighttime air pressed down on her and made her feel like she was choking. It was probably true that she'd overreacted, but it was a well-known fact that Lilly had a temper about her. She just hoped that Prue realized why she was acting the way she was before something happened between her and her old flame from high school.

Lilly took out a pack of cigarettes from the interior pocket of her jacket that she'd worn to the hospital and flicked the side until the end of one of the cancer sticks fell out of the package. Taking it between her fingers, she popped the filtered end in her mouth and held it between her lips while she put the rest of the pack back in her pocket. She'd taken to carrying around a pack just in case, as the temptation to turn back to smoking had been greater and greater as of late. She knew her mother was probably frowning at her from wherever she was in the afterlife, but right now, Lilly didn't exactly give a damn.

Taking a Zippo lighter out of her pocket, she flicked it open and lit up her cigarette with a few skilled strokes of her finger. As she put the lighter back in her jacket, the smoke from her cigarette swirled up in front of her eyes and causing her to squint. As she took a long drag, she brought one hand up to take the cancer stick away from her lips. As she held it down by her side, she nonchalantly flicked her ashes down to the ground. When her throat began to burn pleasantly from the smoke she'd been holding in, she breathed out slowly—releasing it.

As her cigarette burned shorter and shorter, the nicotine in the thing began numbing her mind and it made her relax slightly. When it was nothing more than a butt, she rubbed it out and deposited it in an ashtray close by. After that, she drew out another one and coughed roughly as she lit it up.

Meanwhile, back in the hospital, the nurse had finally come back over to Andy and Prue. "Your sister is still in X-ray's, so it'll be another fifteen minutes," she said to Prue before turning her attention to—in her opinion—the attractive young man beside of her. "Dr. Gordon's office is to the left and down the hall. He's with a patient right now, but you're free to wait outside his office."

"Thank you," Prue and Andy said simultaneously.

Andy turned his attention back to Prue as he said, "Well, it's good seeing you, Prue." He stretched out his hand and Prue took it. As they shook hands, the brunette smiled uneasily up at her old boyfriend.

"Yeah, you too, Andy. Take care," Prue replied, eager to get away from her old flame before repressed feelings began to show their ugly selves. She was happy with Lilly, and she loved her with all of her heart and wanted to be with her always, but being around Andy was…nice.

As Andy stepped past her and she tried to walk away, he grabbed her by the arm gently and turned her back around. "You know, Phoebe's busy, Dr. Gordon's busy. Can I buy you a bad cup of coffee while we wait?"

Prue bit her lip and debated the need to not be rude and the need to go check on Lilly, but as Lilly had been acting as if she hadn't wanted to be around Prue, guess which one won out. "Sure," she replied as they both set off towards the coffee machine. "So, you're an inspector now?"

"What can I say? In any other city, I'd be called a detective."

"Hmm…. Inspector's classier," Prue teased.

"Liking it better already," Andy quipped as he inserted some change into the coffee machine.

"Your dad must be so proud," Prue pointed out as she smiled at the man she once loved.

"Third generation. You bet he's happy. How about you? Are you taking the world by storm?"

"Well, I'm living back at Grams' house, and as of a few hours ago, my partner and I are looking for work," Prue admitted truthfully. Andy nodded his head in understanding. "I heard you moved to Portland."

"I'm back. You, uh, still seeing Roger?"

Prue cocked her head to the side. "How did you know about him?" she asked suspiciously.

"I know people," Andy replied.

"You checked up on me?" she asked in disbelief.

"I wouldn't call it _that_," Andy exclaimed defensively.

"What would you call it?" Prue asked as her smile died into a frown.

"Inquiring minds want to know."

"You checked up on me," she remarked matter-of-factly.

"What can I say? I'm a detective."

"Well, to answer your question, _no_, I'm not with Roger anymore. I'm with someone else. Someone from our past. When I said partner, did you think I meant business partner?" Prue asked curiously.

"Well, yeah," Andy admitted with a shrug of his shoulders, not liking where this conversation was going.

"I didn't mean that she's my business partner. I meant that she's my life partner. Andy, I'm seeing Lilly now," Prue informed him.


	10. Chapter 10

**[WARNING!] **Spoilers for Season 3 are in this chapter. If you haven't watched that season of Charmed yet, you might want to before you read this, or if you just don't care, feel free to read on.

* * *

The trio of women was sitting at one of their favourite hangouts, The Quake, but they were minus the presence of Piper. They were sitting at the bar, and they all three had their drinks of choice beside them. After walking out of the hospital with Phoebe in tow, they had gone looking for Lilly at the smoking area of the hospital. They'd found her bawling her eyes out on a cold, metal bench with an empty cigarette pack beside of her and an unlit one dangling between her fingers. Her eyes had been bloodshot and her cheeks had been shining with still-damp tear trails. Prue had run over to her, followed closely by Phoebe, and sat down on either side of her. The somehow hurt girl had basically collapsed against Prue and continued to cry.

Prue had wrapped an arm around her and gently took the cigarette from her hand and snapped it in two, tossing it to the ground. Phoebe reached out with one hand and rubbed soothing circles on the upset blonde's back while Prue proceeded to whisper sweet nothings in her ear—much like Lilly had done for her earlier that day. "What's wrong, baby?" Prue asked softly as she brushed Lilly's hair away from her face. Lilly had just shaken her head and cuddled closer to the brunette. Once she'd stopped her crying, she lapsed into an unbroken silence as Prue drove them to where they were now. Lilly still had yet to say anything. And neither of the two brunettes wanted to push her.

Prue sat between the silent blonde and her younger sister with a shot glass and a mug of coffee in front of her. Her hand was resting on her checkbook as she was turned towards her little sister, but she'd much rather be holding hands with Lilly—who was just staring down at her drink with a vacant expression. All of the ice in her glass had melted and the condensed water droplets from the dish had dripped over her fingers, pooling on a small napkin below the cup.

In Lilly's mind—which was miles away—visions of Prue and Andy being together were driving her to the brink of insanity. She was done crying, and she thought it impossible that she could any more. She literally thought that all of her tears were spent, but she was incredibly wrong. She barely even registered it when Phoebe got up from the barstool she was sitting on and walked past her. On her way to the restroom, Phoebe reached out and touched Lilly's shoulder, which sent a bolt of electricity through the blonde's body. She gasped out as Phoebe walked away and a vision unseen by any others played out across her vision.

She didn't feel Prue reached out and grab her hand as her eyes went blank, but her expression morphed to one of intense pain. In her mind, she saw what looked to be a massive blue man. An imaginary wind stirred his long, grey hair as he grinned wickedly at two of the Halliwell sisters. Prue and Piper looked older in whatever Lilly was seeing. Prue's now-dark brown—where it was once black—was the hanging down loosely around her face. It was so long now that it went slightly past her elbows. She still looked beautiful, but a few years older—as was evident to the fine lines around her eyes and the corners of her lips, which were drawn back in a terrified expression. Piper's looks were along the same lines, and Lilly couldn't help but notice the gleaming wedding band around the middle Halliwell's ring finger. Lilly screamed out a "no" that was never heard as Prue jumped in front of an energy bolt the man threw to protect an innocent. She watched in silenced terror as her lover was thrown through a wall and laid deathly still when she landed. The blonde tried to run to Prue's aid, but the vision changed and she saw a white casket surrounded by flowers.

A tear fell down Lilly's cheek as she blinked her eyes and was back in the Land of the Living. More tears came to her eyes when she saw a very alive and very worried Prue staring back at her. Before the brunette could even ask her what was wrong, Lilly lunged forward and pressed her lips against Prue's in a very heated kiss. Her hands seemed to automatically tangle themselves in Prue's once-again short, black hair while Prue's hands went to Lilly's hips. Lilly's eyes were shut tightly because she was afraid that if she opened them, Prue would be lying in that coffin again.

When Phoebe came back, her eyes widened and she blushed at the sight of her sister wrapped up in one of her best friend's arms. "Woo, girls. Get busy," she teased as she sat back down on her own barstool. They were attracting quite a few stares, and just when Phoebe thought that they'd never come up for air, Lilly pulled away from Prue. Their lips parted with a soft popping noise, but Lilly didn't give up her hold on the oldest Halliwell. Instead, she just rested her forehead against the brunette's and stared lovingly into her eyes.

"Will you come with me outside for a second?" Lilly asked softly to which Prue only nodded, as she was still recovering from that breath-taking kiss. During that moment where Prue nodded, Lilly made the biggest decision that she would ever make in her life, and she hoped to God or whatever high power that she wasn't being too forward. "Phoebe, will you come, too?"

The blushing younger Halliwell nodded as well and stood from her seat. "We'll be right back," she assured the bartender who was eyeing the couple who'd just made out at his bar. As Lilly took her girlfriend's hand in her own and began tugging her towards the door, Prue felt butterflies fluttering madly around in her stomach. Worry nagged at her mind as she wondered what Lilly wanted to get her and her sister alone for.

Phoebe followed them out of The Quake and into the parking lot silently. She had a pretty decent idea of what Lilly was going to say to Prue, and she hoped that her older sister didn't take it in the wrong way. Phoebe watched as Lilly stooped down on one knee in front of her sister and readjusted her grip on the brunette's hand. Prue, knowing what was coming now, brought her hand up to cover her mouth as tears of joy sprang to her eyes.

"I never, ever want to lose you," Lilly whispered as she pressed her lips against the back of Prue's hand. "Prudence Halliwell, I love you with all of my heart and more. I never want to be without you. I don't know what I would do if I _was _without you. From as far back as I remember up until now, you've always been there for me, and I want it to be like that until we both draw our final breaths. I know we only became…more than just friends yesterday, but I've loved you for a long time, and what better person to marry other than your best friend? And I know I don't have a ring, but I wish for nothing more than to be by your side until my dying day, and even after.… Prue, will you marry me?"

Prue was silent for a few moments as she absorbed what had just been said to her. Lilly wanted to be with her for…eternity…and that made her happy than any ring ever could. Although her first engagement hadn't gone quite according to plan, she pulled Lilly to her feet and embraced her tightly. As Lilly's arms went around her waist, Prue whispered, "Of course I'll marry you. I love you so much." As Lilly picked her up and spun her around with a surprising strength, all thoughts of Andy were gone from both of their minds. They were just looking forward to spending the rest of their lives together.

* * *

**A/N: **No, this is not the end of this story, but I just wanted to say that I'm sorry that relationship of Lilly and Prue is moving so fast. I felt like since (in my fiction-verse) they've been friends since they were children and since Lilly's loved her for more than a few years now that a marriage proposal would be acceptable. This chapter kind of wrote itself and has nothing to do with the original episode (except for the part where they're at The Quake). This chapter was mostly a filler, but I REALLY like it. If you have any flames over their relationship moving this fast, keep them to yourself. I'm writing this story for my enjoyment. I'm just choosing to share it with my readers. :) As for the Phoebe transferring her power, I don't know...I just thought that since Lilly was so upset with Prue over Andy that maybe seeing how shortlived their time would be (if in this AU Lilly didn't save her {but I highly suspect that if I write another Lilly/Prue fic, it'll be the episode where Prue dies, and Lilly will either save her or die with her}) that it would kind of...overpower her anger. I dunno... Either way, I hope you enjoyed it! I'm off to work on the next chapter now.


	11. Chapter 11

Now back inside of the dimly lit bar, Lilly once again sat on her barstool beside two of the three Halliwell sisters. A non-fading smile graced her lips every time she would make eye contact with Prue. All of her thoughts were on her now-fiancée, and she wouldn't have it any other way. After Lilly had made her untimely proposal, Phoebe had congratulated them both with a tight hug as she continuously gushed about how happy she was for them. At the edge of her mind, though, Lilly was slightly anxious. A black sense of dread was creeping over her as the youngest sister's smile died away and her voice trailed off into silence. The silence was broken when Phoebe gave a little sigh.

"Pheebs, what's wrong?" Lilly asked as she hopped down from her seat. Prue gave her a questioning look, but it soon faded into a contented grin as Lilly pushed her legs apart slightly and nestled between them. The blonde leaned back against the brunette's chest as Prue moved to lace her arms delicately around her neck.

"It's just…about last night," Phoebe replied as Prue tilted her head to place a gentle kiss upon the blonde's neck, causing both her and their friend to smile.

Lilly draped her arms over Prue's thighs as if they were the armrests of a chair and continued to make sure that she was comfortable as she leaned against her lover. "Care to share?" Lilly asked. Prue leaned back for a second to take her still-warm coffee mug from earlier. As she took a sip, she recoiled from the bitter taste and began wondering where the creamer was. As she placed the glass back down, Lilly looked over her shoulder and chuckled at the brunette's expression. Prue just glared at her teasingly and stuck out her tongue, which prompted Lilly to snap at it with her teeth.

As they settled back down, Phoebe turned towards them and began explaining to them what she had explained to Piper that morning. She went into detail when she spoke of Melinda Warren and her unbroken vow; she clarified why she thought the three Halliwell sisters were the Charmed Ones; and she made sure to drive her point across when she explained her "vision" to the two women.

After she lapsed into silence again with a defeated sigh, Lilly's eyes widened as she thought of her own vision. It threatened to play out in her mind again, and she shook her head as if to clear it of any thoughts of that terrifying visualization. Prue noticed her distress by the tension in her shoulders and instantly began running her fingers through Lilly's platinum hair. She made quick work of brushing it back over her shoulders and pulling it away from her face. Once she felt Lilly begin to relax she raised her piercingly blue gaze to her sister.

"The Chosen Ones? The Charmed Ones? Phoebe, this is insane," she remarked as she released Lilly's hair from her grasp and watched it fall back into place. Her fiancée's green eyes were hidden behind eye-shadowed eyelids as she enjoyed the feelings of her soon-to-be wife playing with her hair.

"Are you telling me that nothing strange happened to you today? You didn't…freeze time or move _anything_?" Phoebe asked. She turned her doe like, chocolate eyes down to her hands to see that they were trembling with apprehension.

Lilly chuckled and opened her eyes to gaze at the younger brunette mischievously. "Well, one thing's for sure. P, I think you might actually be a Charmed One. You certainly 'moved' me today at my apartment." The blonde had chosen her timing carefully to say this, waiting until Phoebe took a drink of her mineral water; which she barely refrained from spitting out.

"Aw, Lilly!" she the frustrated younger woman as she wiped a water droplet from your chin.

"Sorry, Pheebs. You know I couldn't resist," Lilly said with a small smirk splaying across her glossed lips.

"Oh, hush, you," a blushing Prue teased the blonde. Lilly just giggled quietly and turned her head to kiss Prue's arm—which was back around her shoulders. The eldest Halliwell smiled gently down at her love before turning her attention back to a still slightly red Phoebe. "Roger took an exhibit away from us," she pointed out, causing her sibling to roll her eyes and look away with an exasperated sigh. "Alright, look, Phoebe, I know that you think you can see the future, which is pretty ironic…"

"Since you don't think I have one; that my _vision_ of _life_ is _cloudy_ compared to your perfect hell? Even if you don't want to believe me, just once can't you trust me?" Phoebe cried out in frustration.

Lilly smiled sympathetically towards the upset Halliwell. She was torn between backing up her fiancée and taking up for one of her best friends. She bit down her lip as she made a choice. "Prue, maybe she's right. Today has been a rather…odd day," she stated as she thought back to her own vision. She wondered briefly if she should tell them about it, and on some level, she decided to. "I had a sort of...hallucination…after Phoebe touched my shoulder earlier. That's why I freaked out."

"What was it about?" Phoebe asked curiously, excitement edging her voice.

Lilly turned her head sideways and brought one of her hands up to cup Prue's cheek. She let her thumb gently caress the brunette's cheekbone as she sighed a sigh so full of sadness that it hurt the sisters' hearts just hearing it. "This one right here," Lilly murmured softly, a tear threatening to spill from her eye. Prue reached up and put her hand over Lilly's, drawing it away from her face and intertwining their fingers together instead.

"Guys, I do not have special powers," she assured the duo in a gentle voice. "Now where's the creamer?" As soon as the words left her lips, Lilly and Phoebe watched the small container full of cream move by itself to sit patiently by Prue's coffee mug. As Prue kept her eyes glued to the thing, the creamer inside began to disappear, but it slowly reappearing and mixed itself into Prue's drink.

"Holy fuck," Lilly whispered as she pressed her back against Prue, her eyes going wide with shock. She might've tried to back Phoebe up, but she never truly believed that the sisters possessed magical powers. "That's fucking awesome!"

Phoebe smirked towards her older sister and triumphantly said, "Really? That looked pretty special to me."

Prue's mouth dropped open as her hands fell limply from Lilly's. She shut her eyes tightly and shook her head. "Oh, my God. So—um—I can move things with my mind?" she asked incredulously. Lilly began stroking her leg as if to calm her down, but as far as Prue was concerned, nothing short of being pissed drunk and getting laid would relax her.

"With how much you hold inside, you should be a lethal weapon by now," Phoebe pointed out.

"Pheebs, please don't refer to my fiancée as a weapon of mass destruction. That is definitely not cool in my book," Lilly groaned. "If things keep up today, I'm definitely turning back to chain smoking. Speaking of which…" The blonde reached into her pocket and pulled out a new, unopened pack of cigarettes and began to take one out. She put it between her lips when the bartender walked towards her.

"You have to go outside to smoke, ma'am," he informed her as he grabbed her empty glass and walked away, wiping it down for reuse.

"Ha!" Lilly laughed as she pulled out her lighter and resumed lighting her cancer stick up. "As if I come here for my health," she continued, puffing away on the poisonous thing.

"I can't believe it," Prue said as her eyes glazed over, her mind miles away from The Quake.

"This must mean that Piper can freeze time." Phoebe coughed as a cloud of smoke hit her directly in the face. "Damn it, Lilly!" Phoebe growled as she snatched the cigarette from her. The youngest Halliwell took a long drag of the thing before rubbing it out on a napkin and turning her attention back to Prue, who was not faring so well.

Lilly looked taken aback as Prue grabbed a shot of tequila and downed it all in one gulp; a disgusted expression coming to her face. Lilly looked her lover over worriedly before standing on her tip-toes to press her lips tenderly against the brunette's forehead. "Are you okay?" Lilly and Phoebe asked simultaneously, their voices soft and gentle with care.

"No, I'm not okay!" Prue growled as she put her arms around Lilly's tiny waist. "Phoebe turned me into a witch." She slumped over dejectedly and let her head rest on Lilly's shoulder. The blonde instantly reached around and began rubbing her back, knowing from years of being her best friend that Prue absolutely did _not _hold her alcohol well. She pondered if it were actually possible for that one little drink to make her girl sick.

"You were born one, Prue. We all were, and I think we better start to deal with it," Phoebe replied.

After the girls had paid for their drinks and Lilly had been reprimanded for smoking inside of the quaint little bar, they set of on their way to Lilly's car in the crowded parking lot. Prue was walking a little unsteadily, so Lilly was walking close to her with an arm around her slender waist—just in case the brunette needed someone to lean on. Phoebe walked beside them, her hands swinging at her sides in a relaxed manner.

Suddenly, Prue stopped walking, causing Lilly to stop to see what was wrong. As she opened her mouth to ask the tiny brunette, Prue's arms snaked around her waist and drew her in close. Phoebe—knowing what was coming—looked away and felt embarrassment raising colour in her cheeks. Lilly looked taken aback, but pleasantly surprised, as Prue's lips made contact with hers. The blonde tried to pull away, but when she did, one of Prue's hands made its way up to tangle in her hair. Lilly relaxed into Prue's arms as Phoebe began to speak.

"When I was looking through The Book of Shadows, I saw these wood carvings. They looked like something out of a Bosch painting. All these terrifying images of three women battling different incarnations of evil," Phoebe explained as she walked a short distance away from the necking women.

Prue broke away from Lilly to reply, but didn't take her eyes off of her lover as she said, "Evil fighting evil…. That's a twist." After she was done talking, Lilly leaned towards her and placed a very quick peck upon her lips, causing the brunette to break out in a beaming smile.

"Actually, a witch can be either good _or_ evil. A good witch follows the Wiccan Rede. 'An in harm none, do what ye will.' A bad witch or a warlock has but one goal: to kill good witches and obtain their powers. Unfortunately, they look like regular people. They could be anyone, anywhere."

"And this has what to do with us?" Prue asked as she took Lilly's hand and began walking towards their vehicle again. Phoebe ran after them to catch up.

"What she's saying is that anyone could be out to get you guys. A friend, a coworker…. Hell, even I could be a witch, Prue," Lilly explained, earning her skeptical looks from both sisters. "I'm _not_, but I'm just saying that I could be…. You have known me for years, and have I ever _once _put on a witch's hat, straddled a broom, and rode it?" Prue raised her eyebrow at the blonde, causing her to giggle slightly. "Okay, let me rephrase that. Have I ever done _any _of that _without _being shitfaced and horny?" Prue threw her head back and laughed as they finally reached Lilly's car and got inside; Lilly in the driver's seat, Prue in the passenger's seat, and Phoebe in the back.

"_Gross_, Lilly, but…you make a point," Phoebe replied as she buckled her seatbelt. "In the first wood carving, the three women were in a slumber, but in the second one, they were battling some kind of warlock. I think as long as we were in the dark about our powers, we were safe. Not anymore…."

As Lilly turned the key in the ignition, the engine roared to life, startling a Siamese cat with a red collar that had decided taken shelter under the vehicle.


	12. Chapter 12

The lights of the city flashed by as Piper stared out of the window of a taxi cab on the way to Jeremy's apartment. Buildings blazed by as nothing more than a continuous blur, but each caught her attention as multiple thoughts battled in her head; each one wanting to be spoken first. In her hands, she tightly clutched a small box of fortune cookies. She had to refrain from jumping slightly and spilling them all when Jeremy's arm found its way around her shoulders. She was tense, but how could one _not _be after the events of the day? "Has anything strange or unexplainable ever happened to you?" she asked as she looked towards her boyfriend with a cynical eye.

Jeremy nodded towards the brunette. "Sure. It's called luck or fate or some even call it miracles. Why? What happened?" he asked gently.

"Forget it," Piper replied sullenly as she waved him off with one hand. "Even if I could tell you, you'd swear I was crazy." She opened the small box she clutched so tightly in her hands and pulled one of the goodies from the inside. "Now open your fortune cookie."

He took it from her and began tearing at the wrapping. "Okay," he mumbled as he finally got it out of the clear cover. With an easy tug, he broke the cookie in half and pulled a small, rolled up piece of paper from the interior. "_Soon you will be on top_," he read with a smirk.

Piper rolled her eyes and nodded towards her boyfriend with a non-believing nod. "It doesn't say that," she retorted matter-of-factly.

"Yes, it does!" Jeremy protested.

"Let me see that," Piper instructed as she snatched the small piece of paper from Jeremy's unsuspecting hand.

"Is that a bad thing?" he asked as she turned the paper over to read it for herself.

"Of the world," she read. "_Soon you will be on top of the world._" She rolled her eyes again and threw the small piece of paper back at him.

"Oh," he laughed back at her. He then turned his attention to the cab driver and said, "Can you make a left on 7th, please?"

"You got it," the driver replied.

Piper toyed with the box of cookies and let her gaze rake over Jeremy. "7th? I thought we were going to your place," she pointed out uneasily.

"We _are_, but you reminded me of something. I wanna show you the old Bowing building. The view of the Bay Bridge…? It's amazing!"

Phoebe leaned against the counter of the pharmacy as she watched the clerks moving back and forth amongst the shelves of medication in front of her. The PHARMACY sign sent a buzzing noise loudly against her eardrum as electricity pulsed through the device, making it light up brilliantly. It was so bright that the sheer luminosity from it made her eyes burn slightly, and so she had to look away from it. She crossed her arms on the counter and looked over the several one dollar goodies next to her with greedy eyes.

Somewhere behind her, she could hear Prue and Lilly riffling through the shelved—and slightly more expensive—goods. She distinctly heard Lilly snigger and was tempted to turn around to see what the older blonde was into, but she knew that it was something of no good and resisted the urge. She rolled her eyes at the thought of her friend getting into trouble as the pharmacist walked over to her. "I'll be right back with your prescription."

"Take your time," Phoebe replied as she rubbed her aching shoulder. The accident she had had certainly left a few scuffs and bruises, but the shoulder she'd landed on was throbbing something awful. That's why they were here, to pick up the painkillers Phoebe's doctor had so kindly prescribed.

"Excuse me," Prue called as she walked over to stand beside her sister. Once she had the attention of the pharmacist, she added, "Where do you keep the aspirin?"

"Umm…aisle three," replied the male pharmacist in the long, white doctor's jacket.

"Thank you," Prue sighed thankfully as she walked hurriedly off towards the previously-indicated aisle.

"You know, chamomile tea works great for headaches!" Phoebe called and followed after her.

Prue brought a hand up to rub at her temple as she looked down each aisle she passed. "Not this one, it won't," she groaned as she felt her pulse pounding right behind her eyes.

As she and her sister entered the correct aisle, they both heard a crash from somewhere else in the store. Prue sighed in disappointment as Lilly ran into the aisle they were in. When she saw the two Halliwells, she slowed her gait to a brisk walk and ran her fingers through her platinum hair. "Uh…hey, guys," she greeted as her tongue ran over her upper lip in a slightly nervous and hassled manner.

"_What _was that crash, Lilly?" Prue asked in an annoyed tone as she put more pressure on her temple.

"Um…what crash?" Lilly replied with a sheepish smile that wasn't at all convincing to her fiancée. "I didn't hear a crash."

"Lilly…" Prue growled in warning.

"Okay, so _maybe _I knocked a stand of Nyquil over and _maybe _we should think about getting out of here as soon as possible." The blonde gave her fiancée the biggest grin she could manage in the hopes that Prue would find it too cute to be mad at. Prue just rolled her eyes and Phoebe simply chuckled.

As they wondered up the aisle in search of Prue's aspirin, Lilly remained on the lookout for any of the store's employees that might be after her. Every time she'd see someone walking in their direction, she would duck down or hide behind one of the Halliwells, much to Prue's chagrin.

Convinced that Lilly was going to continue her game of what appeared to be "Super Spy", Phoebe looked over at her eldest sister. "You know, I'm not afraid of our powers. I mean, everyone inherits something from their family, right?"

"Yeah, money, antiques, a strong disposition…. That's what normal people inherit," Prue growled in response.

"And that's why normal people are boring…unless they're me. Then they're just awesome. But…since there's only one of me, the rest of the world is boring," Lilly pointed out matter-of-factly, wanting nothing more than to lift her lover's spirits. The corners of her lips turned down into a deep frown as Prue didn't respond. She wasn't disheartened, but she knew that she'd just have to try harder.

"Who wants to be normal when we can be special?" Phoebe asked gently. When she received a teasingly reproachful glare from Lilly, she quickly added, "_Or_ like Lilly." She smiled towards the blonde who grinned back and moved to take Prue's unoccupied hand in her own.

"I want to be normal," Prue sighed as she gave Lilly's hand a gentle squeeze. She wasn't upset with her girl and she didn't mean to come across as she was, and she hoped that Lilly knew that and truly believed it. "I want my life to be. I want to get married to the love of my life; I want to move up in the world; and most importantly, I want to grow old with this one by my side," she said while smirking playfully back at the blonde, "Like a normal person would…. You know, isn't this aisle three?" Prue threw her hand up in defeat as her headache worsened.

"Well, we can't change what happened. We can't undo our destiny," Phoebe pointed out.

"Not helping, Pheebs," Lilly remarked as she stroked her thumb across the back of Prue's hand. Phoebe tossed her an apologetic glance as Prue scanned her eyes back up the aisle.

"Do you see any aspirin?"

"I see chamomile tea," Phoebe replied honestly. Lilly closed her eyes and sighed in disappointment. The youngest Halliwell _really _wasn't helping the situation and was only adding to Prue's anger. Lilly worried about her girlfriend's blood pressure as the eldest brunette rounded on Phoebe with a look that could kill.

"Look! I just found out that I'm a witch, that my sisters are witches, and that we have powers that will apparently unleash all forms of evil. Evil that is apparently going to come looking for us. I just got engaged, knowing now that apparently, this evil can and probably will hunt down my fiancée and use her to get to me like they do in all the horror movies. So, excuse me, Phoebe, but I'm not exactly in a homeopathic mood right now!"

Lilly moved to stand behind her upset lover and wrapped her arms around her waist. "Prue, just calm down, sweetheart. Everything will be alright," she tried to assure the raging witch. She pressed herself against Prue's back and nuzzled her neck, not caring at all that they were in a public place. Lilly felt Prue relax against her slightly and took that as her cue to continue what she was doing. She placed a tender and loving kiss on the brunette's shoulder before pressing her cheek against it.

"I'm sorry. It's just…with everything going on and this headache…" Prue began but was cut off by her sister.

"Then move your headache out of your mind." Prue glared angrily over at her sister and tensed up against Lilly. As she did so, a bottle of aspirin flew off the shelf and over the younger woman's shoulder. Prue, reacting immediately, reached out and snatched the bottle out of the air. She looked down at it as if she was unsure of what she had just done. "You move things when you're upset," Phoebe pointed out with a knowing grin.

"This is ridiculous! I thought that you landed on your arm, not your head!" Prue growled.

"You don't believe me!" Phoebe snarled at her older sister.

"Of _course _I don't believe you!" Prue replied a she tried to take a step forward. She struggled against Lilly's grasp and fought to get away from the blonde so she could have a go at her sister.

"Prue," Lilly rumbled warningly. "After everything that's happened today, I understand where you're coming from, but you should at least hear Phoebe out. She seems to be the only one who knows anything about what's going on. I know that I sure as hell don't. Now, I love you and I will always stand by your side until my I take my dying breath, but you shouldn't treat Pheebs like this." She took one of her arms from around Prue and brought it up to move the brunette's hair away from her face.

"Lilly, don't. Let me prove my point," Phoebe ordered as she looked over Prue's shoulder at the blonde.

"Ugh!" Lilly cried. "I'm so sick of the words 'Lilly, don't!' I'll be out in the fucking car if you need me." She released Prue and turned to walk away, but spun right back around when she saw a clerk walking towards them. "And that is my cue to walk the _other_ way," she grumbled as she passed the sisters.

Prue didn't much care for Lilly walking away from her for a second time that day. As her anger boiled beneath the surface, another bottle of aspirin flew off the shelves, but this time towards Lilly. It bounced off the blonde's spine and rattled to the floor, causing her to look back at her fiancée with a glare that could kill. "Goddamn it, Prue!" Without another word, she continued on her way and walked out of the store. The chiming of the little bell that rang as the door clicked together signaled that she was really gone.

"Ro-ger," Phoebe sing-songed in a breathy voice. She crossed her arms against her chest as she waited for Prue's reaction. Like she'd expected, a few more bottles of aspirin flew off the shelves and she had to duck to avoid them. "Now, let's talk about Dad and see what happens."

"He's dead, Phoebe," Prue replied as she stooped down to pick up the fallen medication. Her voice trembled as tears threatened to spring to her eyes, but she held them back as she refused to let her little sister see her weak.

"No, he's moved from New York, but he's very much alive. Do you think he'd like to meet Lilly?" Phoebe quipped with a small smile towards her sister.

"No, he would _hate _to meet Lilly, because he would know that his _perfect_ daughter is engaged to a _woman _instead of a strong _man_ that could help produce _grandchildren_ that he would _never_ see! He isn't alive to me anymore. He died the day he left Mom," Prue explained. "So, can we hurry and get your drugs and go? I've an angry fiancée waiting for me out in the car."

"What are you talking about?" Phoebe asked with a little chuckle. "He's always been a major button pusher for you. You're mad he's alive, you're mad I tried to find him, and you're mad I came back. Dad, dad, dad, dad, dad, dad, dad."

An even louder crash than before sounded as all of the medicines on the shelves flew off and into the floor. Phoebe jumped at the noise, but Prue just looked over at them calmly. Phoebe let out the breath she'd been holding as she looked back at her sister. "Feel better?"

"Lots," Prue replied as a smile graced her lips. Even though she knew Lilly was angry with the two of them, she couldn't help but feel as if a great weight had been lifted from her shoulders.

"The Book of Shadows said our powers would grow," Phoebe stated.

"Grow to _what_?" Prue asked good-humoredly. Phoebe's composure broke and they both began laughing at the mess Prue had caused.


	13. Chapter 13

**A/N: **First off, I just want to say that I'm sorry for the recent lack of updates. I've had a friend over everyday this week, and it's just been...hectic. I probably won't have another update until late tomorrow evening or early the next morning. Moving on now...the two songs in this chapter were sung by the actual Lilly Scott in American Idol Season 9. Their titles are "Lullaby of Birdland" (originally by Ella Fitzgerald) and "I Fall To Pieces" (originally by Patsy Cline). So, it goes without saying that I do not own them. If you'd like to hear Lilly's covers, the links are (it won't let me post the links all together, so if you check them out, type them in your browser all schmooshed together) www. youtube .com/watch?v=qRikoIkFbC8 and www. youtube .com/watch?v=VdLG5NkKy4s {Or if you don't feel like copy/pasting them, just go to youtube and type in "Lullaby of Birdland Lilly Scott" and/or "I Fall To Pieces Lilly Scott" and they should come up.} Go check them out. Lilly sings AMAZINGLY! Oh, and on another note, I did a little photo manipulation (failure) and wrote a little skit for our favourite Charmed femslash pairing (Prue/Lilly, of course!) It can be found here: paigeypie96. deviantart .com/#/d2sxnb5 I'm working on another photo manipulation (but this one is much better) and will hopefully have it and another skit written and posted by next week, so stay tuned on that front. But finally, what you've all been waiting for, the next chapter of "Something Wicca This Way Comes".

* * *

A pale moon shone down against the boarded up and completely abandoned Bowing building. The San Franciscans in the streets below were not bothered by the commotion going on inside the building—almost as if they were completely deaf to it. Piper's heart was hammering loud enough that the vendors in China Town should have been able to hear it. As Jeremy opened the door to the lowermost level of the building, he turned back towards Piper with a reassuring smile. "Well, here we are," he stated in a gentle voice.

"I don't care _how _amazing the view is. I'm not going in there," Piper replied uneasily. The wind rattling against the time-worn window panes sent chills down her spine and caused gooseflesh to rise against her arms as she took a mistrustful step back.

"Come on, come on!" Jeremy urged as he took her hand in his and literally dragged her into the room. "I have a surprise inside. He smiled reassuringly at her as they stepped into a lift of some sort and he closed the caged door. As it slammed shut, Piper had to resist the urge to jump slightly and instead settled for wringing her hands together nervously as she normally did. As Jeremy pressed the button and the lift began to rise, he continued, "You're gonna love this. I bet you tell Prue, Phoebe, and Lilly the moment you see them."

Piper turned towards her boyfriend with a raised eyebrow. "I never mentioned that Lilly stayed over last night or that Phoebe came home."

He threw his head back with a sigh before turning on Piper and waving a blade in front of her face. "Whoops," he growled as he licked his lips.

"What is _that_?" Piper asked, taken aback. She found herself backing up against the wall of the elevator. Her legs were trembling beneath her and she could feel her fear rising in her throat like bile.

"It's your surprise," Jeremy replied as he shook the blade back and forth slightly within his hand.

"Jeremy, stop it. You're scaring me," she ordered. When he refused to put the knife away, she shouted, "Damn it! I'm serious!"

"So am I!" he yelled back at her, cutting her off. "See, I've waited six months for this; ever since Grams went to the hospital. I've known for quite some time that the moment that old witch croaked that all your powers would be released—powers that would reveal themselves as soon as the three of you got together again. All that was needed was for Phoebe to return and for Prue to consummate her relationship with Lilly."

"What's Lilly got to do with this?" Piper asked, terror making her voice tremble and break.

"Well, you see, my dearest Piper...Lilly loves Prue 'with all of her heart', and when they fucked, Prue's powers went overboard on the magical Richter scale. Is it starting to make sense now? No? Well, to make a long story short, Prue's powers have grown to a fuller height, making her my first and foremost priority. If something were to happen to devastate her—oh, say a casualty by the name of Lilly—then her powers would escalate all the more," Jeremy finished with a vicious grin.

"It was you, wasn't it? You killed all those women," Piper muttered.

"Not women, witches!"

"And now you want to kill Lilly, my sisters, and me…. Why?"

He rose his free hand up in front of his victim's face and smirked. As he did so, flames erupted from their tips without burning or even scalding the flesh beneath. Piper tried to swallow her horror as she felt the heat from his hand on her face. "It was the only way to get their powers." He jerked his hand away from her and Piper screamed as his face transformed into something out of a B-movie horror film. "And now I want yours," he explained in a now-demonic voice.

As he lunged forward to stab her, Piper threw her hands up and Jeremy froze—almost statue-like. She stood under the blade for a mere few seconds panting slightly before making herself think. "Okay, think. Stay calm. Think, think, think…. I gotta get outta here. Okay." She ran her trembling hands through her hair before moving to crawl from the lift up to the next floor of the Bowing building.

Just as she was pulling herself free from the lift, Jeremy—or what had once been Jeremy—unfroze and grabbed her by the ankle. She screamed in pain and fright as he tried to pull her back, bursting the veins slightly underneath her skin. If she lived to see tomorrow, her skin was going to be black with bruises. She grunted as she tried to claw her way away from the abomination pawing at her leg. Her fingers wrapped around the edge of a wooden crate and she tightened her grip, but as she did so, so did Jeremy and as he pulled harder, she lost her hold and was dragged back.

Thinking quickly, she grabbed a two-by-four next to the crate pile in front of her and swung it back. Jeremy grunted as the wood connected with his skull and sent him flying back against the wall of the elevator. Not another sound was uttered as he slowly slid down the wall and onto the floor unconscious while Piper made her get away.

Out in the parking lot of the pharmacy, Lilly sat in the driver's seat of her vehicle in a maddened huff. Her white hair wisped softly against her cheeks as the nighttime breeze flowed in through the opened window beside her. She reached out with one hand to fiddle slightly with the radio knob on the console as she tried to find some music that would calm her emotions. When she found a station she liked, she withdrew her hand and sighed. It was when one of her favourite songs started to play that Phoebe and Prue walked out of the drug store with a few paper bags in their hands. Lilly took no notice of their presence and began singing along to "Lullaby of Birdland".

"_Lullaby of Birdland, that's what I always hear when you sigh.  
Never in my woodland could there be ways to reveal in a phrase how I feel.  
And there's a weepy, ol' willow. Baby, he really knows how to cry.  
Well, that's how I'd cry in my pillow if you should tell me farewell and goodbye.  
Lullaby…. Oh, lullaby!  
Oh, have you ever heard two turtle doves bill and coo when they love?  
That's the kind of magic music we make with our lips—oh—when we kiss.  
And there's a weepy, ol' willow. Baby, he really knows how to cry.  
Well, that's how I'd cry in my pillow if you should tell me farewell and goodbye.  
Lullaby of Birdland, whisper low.  
Kiss me sweet, and we'll go flyin' high in Birdland.  
High in the sky, up above!  
And it's all because we're in love…._"

"That was beautiful, baby," Prue whispered as she leaned against the doorframe of the car. Her arms were crossed in front of her and her head was tilted to the side as she stared into the vehicle at her startled fiancée.

"Prue…. How long have you been there?" Lilly asked as she bit down on her lip. In her mind, she wasn't very good at singing and she hadn't meant for anyone—let alone Phoebe and Prue—to hear her. Not to mention that the song she had been singing was one of the many that described her feelings for the eldest Halliwell perfectly. She just hoped with everything in her that she hadn't made a fool of herself.

"Well, we've been standing here since you starting singing. I…never knew you could sing like that," Prue pointed out softly as her blue eyes shimmered with love for the white haired woman before her.

"Yeah, you bitch, why didn't you tell us?" Phoebe asked, faking anger as she stepped up to stand beside her sister.

"I—I never thought I could…" Lilly admitted with a sigh, all of her previous anger being forgotten and replaced by sorrow at the song she'd just sung. She couldn't imagine ever _not _feeling that way about Prue, but yet, she had this creeping sensation that something terrible was about to happen. It had occurred to her suddenly and now she couldn't shake it, and hearing—as well as singing—"Lullaby of Birdland" had just amplified it to a greater magnitude.

"Well, you can," Phoebe remarked matter-of-factly with a grin. She reached past Prue and rubbed Lilly's shoulder in a friendly, comforting manner before skipping her way around the front of the car and hopping into the backseat. The pain in her shoulder was nothing more than an echo now, but she was sure that it would flare up again sometime soon.

"Really, Lilly…that was amazing," Prue continued. Her voice sounded tender and sweet as her words splashed against Lilly's ears. They lifted her heavy heart and sent the corners of her lips turning upwards into a brilliantly white smile.

"Thank you," she replied with a small blush. "Now, get in the car and let's get home. Piper is probably at the manor freaking out right now." Prue grinned and nodded slightly before ducking through the window to kiss Lilly gently. As she pulled away, Lilly felt her heart sink back to the bottom of her seemingly bottomless sea of distress. However, she put a smile on her face and watched Prue bound around the car and jump in the passenger's seat. "Buckle up, sweetheart," Lilly reminded her softly. "You, too, Pheebs," she added with a smirk over her shoulder.

"Sing for us while you drive us home!" Phoebe demanded in her cute, little baby voice.

Lilly rolled her eyes and chuckled. "But of course! Any preferences?"

"Hmm…nope. Just sing," Phoebe instructed as she closed her eyes and tilted her head back until it lay against the headrest.

"After hearing you sing, I think I'll want you to sing me to sleep every night for the rest of my life," Prue pointed out to her blonde fiancée with a sheepish smile. Lilly smiled and took one hand from the steering wheel so she could reach out and grab Prue's hand in hers. Once their fingers were laced together, she relaxed slightly and parted her lips to sing.

"_I fall to pieces each time I see your face again.  
I—I fall to pieces. How can I be just your friend?  
You want me to act like we've never kissed.  
You want me to forget, pretend we never met.  
And I tried, and I tried, but I haven't yet.  
You walk by and I fall to pieces….  
But each time I go out with someone new,  
you walk by and I fall to pieces…._"

As the last words fell gracefully from her lips, Lilly could hear the contented cooing of Phoebe in the back—the latter having drifted off into a somewhat-fitful doze. She took her eyes off the road momentarily to glance over at Prue. The brunette's head was turned towards her, but it was laid back against the headrest and her gaze was hidden by her eyelids. A soft sigh escaped her as Lilly's thumb stroked over the back of her hand. "I love you, Prue," she whispered. "No matter how this goes down, I'll always love you."_  
_


	14. Chapter 14

The headlights of Lilly's car sliced through the oncoming darkness with a brilliance only rivaled by the street lamps as she turned onto Prescott Street. The beams shone determinedly down the paved road in front of the Halliwell manor until Lilly pulled the vehicle to a halt and killed the engine. She sat in the undisturbed silence for a moment, not completely willing to wake the sleeping sisters yet. She found herself deep in thought and she was spiraling deeper still. In her mind, she saw herself spending money that she didn't have on a stunning engagement ring for Prue, and then presenting it to her in the most romantic way she could possibly think of. The butterflies that were now constantly in her stomach fluttered at her thoughts of how happy she hoped her lover would be. However, it was almost like someone had sprayed pesticides down her throat as the happiness left her all at once. Her mind was back on the morose path of thinking that was foreboding something terrible.

A soft sigh escaped her lips as she turned to look towards her beautiful girlfriend. As she reached over and cupped Prue's cheek in her hand, the brunette smiled in her sleep and nuzzled her palm slightly. Letting her eyes flicker shut to fight back tears, Lilly leaned over the console dividing the front seats of her car and timidly pressed her lips against Prue's. Almost immediately, the brunette was kissing her back in a way that betrayed everything she felt for the blonde.

When Lilly pulled away from her, Prue kept her eyes closed and wished for nothing more than for the blonde's lips to be back against hers where they belonged. "We're home, baby," Lilly mumbled after she cleared her throat. In Prue's mind, the kiss was what had worked her up and she thought nothing of it. Oh, how her Lilly was always so emotional and sensitive. It was adorable. She smiled at her girlfriend as she finally opened her eyes. "What are you so happy about, Miss Halliwell?" Lilly tried to give the woman she loved her best fake smile, and on some level, she knew she'd succeeded.

"Oh, just the fact that I'm engaged to the most gorgeous woman on the planet," she replied with a grin.

"And I suppose the fact that PHOEBE is snoring up a storm has nothing to do with it?" Lilly shouted playfully.

In the backseat, Phoebe sat bolt upright and spluttered for breath. "KELLY CLARKSON!" she yelped as she looked around to assess the current situation. Her brain was whirling from being woken up so abruptly. When her eyes rested upon a cracking up Lilly, she instantly knew what had woken her. "Oh, you're so going to get it…" Phoebe grumbled; her eyes glazed over threateningly.

"Kelly Clarkson?" Prue and Lilly laughed simultaneously. "Where the hell did that come from?"

Phoebe crossed her arms over her chest in mock anger as her lower lip jutted out in a pout. "You know, someday that'll be in a movie or something. Yeah, you'll see then!"

"Oh, I'm sure we will, Sleeping Beauty," Lilly quipped as she looked over her shoulder at the vexed brunette. "C'mon. Let's go inside so you can get some proper sleep in your own bed." Lilly smiled towards Prue. "And maybe we can do something else in our own bed," she added. The eldest Halliwell simply blushed and turned to make her way out of the vehicle, closely followed by the youngest Halliwell. Lilly went after them both, grinning on the outside, but feeling horrible on the inside.

As the trio made it into the house, Prue turned back towards her sister and her lover. "Guys, I'm going to go look for Piper. She may already be asleep," she warned them in a tone that ordered them to be quiet or else.

Lilly looked towards Phoebe, who grinned back mischievously. As Prue waited for a confirmation that they understood, they both raised their arms in a mock salute to the eldest sibling. "Aye-aye, Cap'n!" they replied at the same time. Prue just rolled her eyes and turned to search the house for her other sister.

"So, Lil, when are you gonna get Prue a ring?" Phoebe asked with a glint of something in her eyes.

"Um…whenever I get the chance to slip away from her for a few hours to run into town," Lilly replied, taken aback by the suddenness of Phoebe's question. "Why do you ask?"

"You know, when I was little I'd always hoped that you'd marry into the family, but I never thought you'd be marrying Prue," Phoebe remarked, getting a far-away look in her eyes as she leaned back against a beige wall.

"Oh, yeah? Who'd you think I'd be marrying? There are no _men_ in the actual Halliwell bloodline," Lilly pointed out with a chuckle.

"I don't know. I just always wanted you to marry into the Halliwell family," Phoebe stated as a small blush rose to her cheeks.

"Aw, did ickle Pheebs have a wee crush on me when we were kids?" Lilly teased with a heartwarming grin.

"Oh, shut up!" Phoebe laughed as she swatted at the blonde's shoulder playfully. She turned her attention down to the flashing light on the answering machine in the entrance hallway of the Halliwell manor. "Be quite so I can listen to this message," she pouted as she walked towards the device and pressed "PLAY".

A long beep sounded followed by an annoyingly familiar voice that made Lilly's head throb with anger. "_Prue, its Roger. I've decided to let you and Lilly come back to work. Seriously, let's talk. Bye._"

"That little—pussy?" Lilly asked as Prue walked into the room holding a purring Siamese cat in her arms. It mewled slightly in protest as Prue tightened her grip on its wriggling form.

"Oh, ha-ha, Lilly. Piper's definitely not home unless she's turned into a cat," Prue informed the two women standing listlessly in the middle of the hallway.

"Aw, it's so cute," Lilly cooed as she moved forward to take the struggling creature into her arms. It stilled and quieted as she began scratching behind its ears. It purred and pressed its head against the palm of her hand, encouraging her to continue what she was doing.

Prue and Phoebe smirked at the older woman as she lovingly caressed the small mammal. She'd always had a way with animals, and the feline seemed to adore the attention she was getting. "How'd the cat get in?" the youngest sibling asked.

"I don't know. Someone must have left the window open. Um…did Piper leave a message?" Prue asked as she put her hands on her hips and fixed her youngest sister with a questioning look. A loud and whining meow sounded as Lilly stooped down to release the cat from her grasp. It trotted away with its tail tip twitching in an aggravated manner, which caused Lilly to smile slightly.

"She's _probably_ out with Jeremy. Roger called," Phoebe replied as she bit down on her lower lip, afraid of her older sister's wrath.

"Yeah, and the little bastard is going down. You just _wait _until I see him in public," Lilly growled.

"I heard the message," Prue explained as she smiled at her fiancée's statement. "I can't wait to tell—" She was cut off as the front door open and slammed shut in the room behind them.

"Prue?" Piper called frantically as she turned and locked the door securely.

"In here... Piper?" Phoebe asked with concern.

Lilly looked down the small hallway leading to the stained glass doors. She eyed her soon-to-be sister-in-law with puzzlement. Something had obviously happened to scare the poor woman out of her skin.

"Oh, my God. What is it? What's wrong?" Prue asked as Piper ran up to the trio of women.

"Quick. Lock the doors, check the windows. We don't have a lot of time," the hassled middle sister ordered.

"Whoa, Piper. Calm down. What happened?" Lilly asked as she reached out to touch the brunette's shoulder.

"I'll explain later," she promised as she reached out to grab Phoebe's hands with her own. "Phoebe, in The Book of Shadows, did it say how to get rid of a—"

"Warlock?" Phoebe asked before Piper had even got the chance to finish her question.

"Oh, my God," Lilly and Prue breathed simultaneously. The blonde instinctually moved closer to her lover as if to protect her from this unspoken evil. She wrapped an arm around Prue's waist and instantly felt the newfound witch lean against her for support—emotionally and physically. "_It'll be alright, love,_" she tried to mentally reassure her fiancée as well as herself.

In the elevator of the old Bowing building, Jeremy was coming to. He shook his head as if to clear it of the blurriness he saw around the rims of his vision. As he struggled to get to his feet, he leaned over to grab the slightly chilled knife that was lying on the floor of the lift. With a grunt, he pulled himself up and out of the frozen-in-place elevator. Panting slightly he ran out of the building and began trekking down the road towards Prescott Street. "I'll get you, you bitch," he swore.


	15. Chapter 15

Lilly flopped down on the small loveseat as Prue paced around the living room in front of her. Piper wrung her hands together as she pulled the curtains back to observe the streets below. She had a feeling that Jeremy wasn't going to give up so easily. He was going to come after them, and she knew it. He was going to try to kill Lilly and her sisters, eventually killing her as well. Biting down on her lower lip, she turned away from the window and began walking towards the blonde lounging on the couch.

"I'm calling the cops," Prue threatened as she walked to stand beside of Piper. The corners of Lilly's lips turned down as she heaved herself from her sitting position. She wrapped her arms around Prue's waist from behind and pressed herself against the distraught woman.

"Baby, I'm not going to let anything happen to you," she assured her fiancée as she placed a gentle kiss on her neck. "Any of you. He's _not _going to hurt you," she added to Piper, who gave her a small smile.

"I'm still calling the cops," Prue muttered as Lilly brushed her slightly parted lips across her shoulder. She moved her hands down to cover Lilly's as she fought to keep her fear under control. She wasn't worrying for her own life, but rather the love of her life's and her sisters'.

"And tell them what? That we're witches? That some freak with powers beyond comprehension is trying to kill us? Even if the cops did come, they'd be no match for Jeremy, and we'd be next," Piper explained as she let her eyes rake over the forms of her sister and Lilly. "_This may very well be the last_ _time they get to embrace as lovers,_" she thought with a despair-filled sigh.

Lilly snaked one of her hands up the eldest Halliwell's torso and let it rest between her breasts, over her racing heart. Lilly sighed as she felt it hammering against her palm, much like her own; so full of life and love for her new family. She placed a gentle kiss against Prue's ear and let her lips linger as Phoebe came rushing down the stairs, taking two at a time.

"I found the answer! Come on!" she called as she turned and raced back up to the attic.

Prue glanced over her shoulder and fixed Lilly with a worried look. "Don't worry, sweetheart," Lilly whispered as she pressed her lips against Prue's throbbing temple. "We'll fix this." The brunette sighed as the blonde's arms fell from her waist. Her icy gaze followed her fiancée as she made her way towards the stairs.

"What are we getting ourselves into?" she muttered as she and Piper followed after their younger sister and Prue's lover.

"Up to the attic and _away_!" Lilly shouted playfully as she burst through the once-wedged-shut door. A triumphant grin settled on her face as she remembered the last time she'd tried that little stunt. "Alright, I'm feelin' pretty good about myself. Let's get this party started, ladies. We be kickin' ass and takin' names!"

Lilly pressed her back against the now-closed door as she watched the three sisters work their magic—literally—with a transfixed gaze. She grinned every time Prue would glance up at her, assuring her lover that she wasn't scared of what she was witnessing. If anything, she found it extraordinary. The sheer power that she knew these three women possessed was just…incredible. She knew deep down that they'd be able to overcome any evil thrown their way, and Hell would have to freeze over twice before Lilly would let anything happen to any of them. They were her family. They always had been. Prue looked up at her, and once again, Lilly gave her a heartwarming grin. This caused Prue to give the blonde her famous half smile that made Lilly's heart absolutely melt _every time_. "I love you," she mouthed to the brunette.

Prue sighed and tore her gaze away from her fiancée to look at her sisters. "Okay, we've placed the nine candles anointed with oil and spices in a circle," she mumbled as if counting off the steps to the spell they were casting.

Lilly cocked her head and pointed her finger at each candle on the floor around the Halliwells. Her brow furrowed together in confusion as Piper spoke up. "Wait, I only count eight."

"Oh! You forgot this one," Phoebe announced as she held up a small, pink birthday candle.

Lilly couldn't help but let a grin splay across her lips as Piper looked at Phoebe in disbelief. "A _birthday candle_?"

"I guess Grams was a little low on witch supplies…" Phoebe replied as she looked around for the lighter they'd borrowed off of Lilly. When she found it she held the top of it against the candle wick and held the flame against it until it glowed as it caught fire.

"Uh…next, we need the poppet," Prue remarked as Phoebe held the candle up with a triumphant grin.

"Got it!" Piper announced as she held up a tiny doll that sent chills down Lilly's spine.

"That little fuck is scary as hell," Lilly muttered as she shifted her uneasy gaze from the poppet to Prue. "Reminds me of some of the shit I found in my mother's attic right before she died."

"It'll be gone soon enough, baby," Prue assured her with another smile as Phoebe threw the lit birthday candle in the pot between the three of them. "Okay, we're set. Get ready to cast the spell."

Piper sighed and picked up one of the roses Jeremy had given her earlier that week. "Okay…first I'll make it stronger." She placed the red rose on top of the poppet, piercing its cloth skin with a thorn. "_Your love will wither and depart, from my life and my heart. Let me be, Jeremy, and go away forever._" Prue's brow furrowed together as Piper placed the small doll with the pierced heart into the pot and it, too, caught flame. "Okay, the spell's complete."

"Let's hope it works," Prue sighed with a worried glance over at Lilly. The blonde stepped closer towards the trio of women and together, they watched the poppet and the rose burn. Lilly and the Halliwells all jumped back with a start as it exploded in the metal pot and was completely engulfed in flame.

Jeremy was running down Prescott Street with the blade he'd tried to use on Piper clenched tightly in his hand. Suddenly, a searing pain lanced its way through his body causing him to slow. "Argh!" he screamed as he leaned against a nearby wall and slithered to the ground. He dropped the knife and clawed at his skin frantically. It felt as if something was ripping him apart from the inside out. With a _shhiiinnk _that was drowned out by his pained shrieks, millions of spikes sliced through his skin without difficulty. He was covered in thorns.


	16. Chapter 16

As Piper gathered up the candles, she kept her eyes cast downward. Her mind was reeling at what she and her sisters had just done. Magic…was real. She and her sisters had powers that were supposedly more powerful than beyond anyone's comprehension. They were the greatest good on the planet, and with that, she knew there was a massive responsibility. How would they…COULD they…lead normal lives? Would she ever get married? Have children? Would her sisters? What would become of Lilly? Would she stick by the Halliwells through all of this? Was her love for Prue genuine? Well, of that there was no doubt in her mind. She sighed wistfully and continued to tidy up the attic.

Phoebe grinned to herself as she thought on what she and her sisters had just done. Magic was real! She and her sisters were badass witches destined to slay every badass demon that dared cross their paths! She felt like the most awesome woman in the world and nothing could bring her mood down, she thought.

Prue looked over to Lilly who stared back at her with a crooked grin. "Hey," she whispered to her fiancée as she straightened out her clothes.

"Hey yourself," Lilly replied as she walked to stand in front of her lover. Without caring about the other women in the attic with them, Lilly wrapped her arms around Prue's midsection and placed a gentle kiss on her lips. She felt Prue press against her and thought that everything would be alright. She was the luckiest woman in the world and she knew that Prue felt the same. She smiled even wider when Prue's arms around their way around her neck and her lover's nimble fingers were stroking her neck and face with a tenderness matched by no other.

Just as Prue stood on her tip-toes to press her lips back against Lilly's, Phoebe snorted with amusement and grinned at the two. "Would you two please get a room?" she asked as she picked up the pot they'd been using for the spell.

"Yes, I don't need to see my big sister indulging in all that icky, adult stuff," Piper added with a small smile, causing Lilly and Prue to absolutely beam with happiness. None of the three women noticed as Phoebe's body went completely rigid. Her fingers turned bone white as her grip tightened on the metal pot and her facial features went slack. When she came to, she gasped in fright.

"Wait! It didn't work!" she yelped, obviously panicked.

Lilly released Prue and they all turned to face the youngest Halliwell with questioning looks.

"What?" Piper asked as her face contorted with confusion.

"The spell, it didn't work!"

"How do you know?" Prue asked worriedly as she stepped towards her baby sister.

"When I touched the pot, I had a flash. I saw Jeremy…" she whispered.

"You touched the pot and you saw him?" Prue asked, externally calm when on the inside, she was more terrified than she'd ever been in her life.

"He's on his way here," Phoebe announced as she eyed her sisters with an ominous look.

"He won't make it here, the fucker," Lilly growled as she turned around and ran out of the attic. She heard the sisters following after her as her feet pounded down the wooden stairs. When she was on flat ground, she bounded over to the door and knew Prue was hot on her heels. She flung the door open and turned around to face the witches following her, ready to yell at them to get back and not pursue her any further. Her brow furrowed with confusion as Prue's blue eyes went wide with fear and Phoebe and Piper let out a blood-chilling scream.

She spun around and gasped at what she saw. In front of her was Piper's ex-boyfriend standing with a gleaming blade in his hands and what appeared to be thorns sticking out of his skin everywhere on his body. She stepped back and eyed him with a look that dared him to come any further.

"Hello, ladies," he said coolly. Oblivious to Lilly's look, he stepped forward and into the house, causing the sisters and Prue's girlfriend to back up with every step he took. When they'd backed up as far as the manor allowed Lilly put herself in front of her family, ready to sacrifice herself if need be. She reached back with one hand and signaled for Prue to use her power.

"_Do it, love,_" she thought frantically as her fear bubbled underneath the surface.

"Piper, Phoebe, Lilly…" Prue said warningly as she nodded her head in Jeremy's direction. "Get out of here now!" she yelled as Jeremy was flung back against a wall. She squared her shoulders as her younger sisters turned and ran up the stairs and into the attic. Only Lilly stayed.

"Cool parlor trick, bitch. You were always the tough one, weren't you, Prue?" he growled as he pushed himself away from the wall.

"No, Jeremy. That would've been me," Lilly growled as she stepped forward.

"Lilly, what the hell! Go!" Prue cried as she used her power again to fling Jeremy back against the wall.

"Sorry, babe. Can't get rid of me that easily," she smiled uneasily towards her girlfriend. With a terrified heart, she willed her body to stop shaking. She nodded her head towards the stairs as Jeremy tried to shake off his disorientation. "Go," she ordered.

"Lil—," Prue tried to object.

"GO, DAMN IT!" Lilly screamed at her fiancée. Prue looked helpless as Lilly glared back at her, and against her better judgment, she turned and ran up the stairs to join her sisters in the attic.

"Phoebe, you're right, our powers _are _growing," Prue muttered as she ran into the small room and turned back towards the door, waiting…just waiting for Lilly to run in after her. It never happened.

Downstairs still, Lilly faced the warlock before her with a small grin. "You know, Jeremy, I never thought you were right for Piper. From what Prue told me, I always thought you were a real fuck up. I didn't know how right I was. But with all those thorns, you must _really _be a 'pain in the ass', too," the blonde quipped as she stood her ground.

"You little bitch. You don't understand do you? I _knew _you'd try to play the heroine and protect your little whore and her sisters. I _wanted _you to. Just to leave you with a pleasant last thought, as soon as I'm done with you, I'm going to kill your little girlfriend, Piper, and Phoebe slowly. I'm going to make them feel every second of pain and watch them bleed dry. As Prue draws her dying breath, I'm going to tell her what you _really _did with Mark before you came here that night," Jeremy replied with a sadistic smirk.

"Fuck you, you bastard," Lilly growled as she stepped forward and drew her fist back. Her balled hand traveled through the air in a graceful line before connected with Jeremy's nose. As it did, they both hissed in pain as the thorns on his face sliced through Lilly's pale hand. The impact of the blow threw Jeremy off balance momentarily and caused him to stagger back. He found himself trying to suck in several deep breaths through a throbbing nose to fill lungs that seemed now-devoid of oxygen.

"Fuck! That hurts!" Lilly snarled as she shook her hand. Droplets of scarlet blood fell from her fingers and splattered against the hardwood floor of the Halliwell manor. Jeremy shook his head and refocused his fiery glare at her.

"You'll regret that, bitch," he sneered as he surged forward. Before Lilly's mind could register that she was being charged, he had her by the neck and pinned against a wall. Her lungs fought for breath as he slowly dragged her upwards until her feet couldn't touch the ground. She clawed at his hand as he put more and more pressure against her throat. She could feel her esophagus caving in on itself against the force of his attack.

"B-bastard…" she choked out as she brought her knee up sharply against his groin. He sucked a sharp breath in through his teeth as he loosened his grip on her throat, but not enough to let her go free. He clenched his teeth together and bellowed out a pained shriek that sounded like a roar against the blood pounding through Lilly's ears.

"I'm going to kill you," he growled as he slung her through the air, throwing her with ease across the small hallway leading into the living room of the manor. Her body went limp as she sailed through the air. She found herself unable to move or stop her fall, so she closed her eyes, well aware of her fate. She let out a painful scream as her back connected with the grandfather clock standing in the hall. The force of the impact sent her straight through the glass front of the clock and into the wood and wall behind it. She felt the glass crumbled around her and embed itself in her skin.

As she slid down the wall, she felt a burning pain in her chest that drowned out everything else in her mind. With all of her strength, she looked down and felt her pounding heart sink at what she saw. Sticking slightly out of her chest was a blood-covered lance of wood from the grandfather clock. She tasted blood on her lips as her eyes glazed over and her pupils widened. "_No_," she whispered as she fell over on her side, pushing the pointed end of the javelin further out of her chest. She could do nothing but stare ahead of her and watch as Jeremy walked past her with a triumphant smirk. Her breathing was coming in short, and shallow gasps. Her vision faded to black as she lost all consciousness and fell completely limp.


	17. Chapter 17

In the attic, Prue cried out and tried to run forward as she heard the thump of Lilly colliding with the clock and her dreadful shriek. It took both Piper and Phoebe to hold her back as tears streamed down Prue's cheeks, and made her icy eyes gleam with a sorrow so deep that the sight of it made the other sisters feel the intensity of her pain. "Prue…. Prue! Stop!" Piper ordered as she spun her older sister around and kept a tight grip on her arms. She wanted to shake some sense into her sibling, but didn't dare as there was no time to waste. She looked over at Phoebe momentarily. "Put as many things against the door as you can." Phoebe nodded to show she understood as she began piling whatever she could grab against the now-closed door.

"You can't," Prue sobbed as she ripped away from Piper. "What about Lilly?"

"Prue, sweetie, Lilly's gone," Phoebe whispered as Piper strode forward to lend her a hand in piling things up in front of the door. She didn't look back toward the broken hearted brunette as she and Piper pushed a dresser against the door. Piper put a chair on it before they turned back towards their sister.

The sight of their eldest sister standing there, looking so…defeated scared them more than the fact that there was a body downstairs in their living room and a bloodthirsty warlock coming after them. "Prue, I—," Piper began, but was cut off by a deathly glare from her older sibling.

"Don't," Prue muttered through clenched teeth. She covered her face and continued to sob into her hands as a fresh wave of grief washed over her. Piper and Phoebe gasped as a demonic laugh sounded from outside the door.

"Take me now, Prue. My powers are stronger than yours. I killed your girlfriend, so do you really think a chair will stop me?" Jeremy asked, his voice slightly muffled by the door. Prue uncovered her face as the chair slid off the dresser and clamored against the floor. "Do you think a dresser will stop me?" They watched in mutual horror as the dresser slid away from the door, scraping against the floor with a horrible screeching noise. "Have you witches figured it out yet? Nothing…_nothing_ can keep me away," he remarked with another laugh.

Piper looked towards her eldest sister, hoping she'd have an idea. "What do we do? We're trapped!" she exclaimed with a trembling voice.

They all jumped and let out startled screams as the door exploded into millions of fragments and revealed a blood-spattered Jeremy. The thorns were still coming out of his skin, but there was fresh blood dripping from his nose. Lilly must have inflicted some damage before he took her out. Another wave of sorrow mixed with guilt coursed through her, but she used it to help her think.

"Come on, we'll face him together!" she explained to her sisters, her voice shaking with sadness. "Do you remember the spirit board?"

"The inscription on the back!" Piper gasped with realization as Prue held out her hands. Phoebe and Piper each grasped one of their sister's hands and turned to stare at the warlock in front of them who had murdered their best friend.

"The power of three will set us free," Prue said loudly. Jeremy stepped forward and flicked his knife towards them. A bolt of fire shot out and landed on the floor before them. A wall of flame surrounded them on all sides and the smoke choked them, but Prue didn't let this distract her. "Come on, we gotta say it together!" she yelled as Jeremy laughed.

"The power of three will set us free. The power of three will set us free. The power of three will set us free…" the sisters chanted. A strong wind blew around them, whipping their hair against their faces, but they continued to chant as the wind grew stronger.

"I am not the only one! I am one of millions in places you can't even imagine, in forms you would never believe! We are hell on Earth!" Jeremy cried as the magic of the Charmed Ones surrounded him. With a cry of pain, his body exploded into millions of black fragments that were engulfed in fire before they disappeared completely.

"The power of three," Phoebe and Piper whispered as the wind died and Prue released their hands. She raced forward and out of the now-door less attic, flinging herself down the stairs into the living room below. Phoebe and Piper followed, hot on her heels. They weren't about to let their sister bear this pain alone.

"Prue, wait!" Piper yelled as Prue hit the last stair and went completely still. "You might not want—oh, my God…" she breathed as she stopped right behind her sister, her eyes landing on what Prue's gaze was fixed on.

"What—oh, God," Phoebe cried as she also spotted what had her sisters' attention.

"Lilly…" Prue whispered as she ran forward and fell to her knees beside the pale form of her fiancée. Her knees were instantly coated in a glaze of cooling blood as she reached out towards blonde's face, but her fingers curled back against her palm before they made contact. She was afraid to touch her; afraid that she might break the body.

Tears flooded her eyes as she pushed back her fear and reached out to push the stain-red, once-platinum bangs out of Lilly's closed eyes. She cringed as her fingertips brushed across the bitterly cold skin of her lover's forehead. Her lower lip trembled as she moved her hand to stroke Lilly's equally chilled cheek. "Oh, God…. Lilly," she whimpered as she willed with everything in her that she'd wake up from this nightmare to see a very much alive Lilly lying right beside of her, with that adorable grin plastered across her face.

The reality of the situation hit her when she felt Piper and Phoebe's hands on her shoulders, gently tugging her to get her to her feet and away from the body. She shook them off and bent over to press her lips against Lilly's cold, blood covered ones. As she drew away, her tongue instinctually ran over her lips. She regretted this instantly, as she could taste the tang of her lover's blood on her tongue. Her stomach heaved at the taste and she thought she was going to be sick, but she pushed that feeling aside using all of her willpower.

"You can't leave me," she cried quietly as Piper pushed her short, brunette hair back behind her ear. "We were going to get married. You were going to be my wife. Please don't leave me, baby," she pleaded as her face contorted with pain and she fell over and rested her forehead against Lilly's. Her stomach heaved again as she felt the point of the piece of wood that had pierced her lover's chest poke against her side.

"Please…"


	18. Chapter 18

"Prue, come on. We have to call someone," Piper murmured as tears welled within her own eyes. She glanced over at her younger sister to see tears already trailing down her face. She couldn't blame her, though. Under her eldest sibling's sob-racking form laid the corpse of their best friend; a friend of all the Halliwell family since Prue had met her in grade school. Phoebe had practically known Lilly since birth, and had grown up viewing her as another sister and loved her as such. As for Piper, she had always turned to Lilly during her teenage years when the stress of being the middle sister was just too much for her to bear. The blonde had always talked her through it and never failed to calm her down. Even when they entered their twenties, she'd still consulted Lilly on things that were just too hard for her to deal with alone; things that she didn't dare go to her sisters with. She couldn't even begin to imagine what Prue was feeling right now, and in all honesty, she didn't want to. All she could do right now was to be there for her mourning sister and let her share the grief. She wasn't going into this alone.

"Don't…bother…" a hoarse voice croaked from underneath Prue. All of the sisters gasped and looked down to see a bleary eyed Lilly gazing back up at them with a weak smile on her face. Her skin was still as white as flour, but there was a small streak of colour rising to her cheeks. She closed her eyes and contorted her face as she took a small and painful swallow. It made a gulping sound as it slid down her dry throat. When she opened her eyes, her gaze was a bit stronger and her eyes rested completely on Prue, who was staring back at her in disbelief.

"Lilly…? But…how?" the brunette whispered as the tears falling from her eyes slowed, but didn't stop.

"I'll…explain…later. I'm alright…though. Just…help…me get off…this thing. I'm a lesbian…for a reason," she joked with a slightly wider grin. "I…don't like…wood…."

Piper's jaw fell open as she gaped at the miracle before her. Lilly was alive! She was _really _alive! She'd never felt happier, and her happiness was mirrored in Prue's and Phoebe's still-shining-and-tear-filled eyes. She shook her head to clear it of her feeling of being star-struck. "She's right. We need to get this thing out of her and call an ambulance," Piper explained, always being the voice of reason.

"No…don't. I'm alright. Just…get it…out," Lilly replied with a stern glare up at the Halliwells. "I don't like…hospitals…either…."

"Can you roll over, honey?" Phoebe asked softly as she knelt down beside Prue and let her eyes rake over Lilly's severely damaged body. Shards of glass had sliced through her skin, some still embedded within her flesh. Each wound was bleeding more than the last, but what really worried the sisters was the piece of wood protruding from Lilly's chest. There was a good five inches of wood sticking out of her, and the entire lance seemed to be about an inch in diameter. It was going to be a bitch to remove, and it was going to be painful. Everyone was aware of this, but none of them as much as Lilly. She was in excruciating pain, but she was trying to hide it. She was going to be fine, but it still hurt.

"I…can try…" she breathed as she quickly heaved herself up and onto her side. She screamed out and shut her eyes tightly, grinding her teeth together and sucking in shallow gasps repeatedly.

"It'll be alright, baby," Prue assured her as she reached out to stroke her lover's now-warm face.

"I…know…" Lilly coughed out between gasps.

"Oh, God. How do we get it out?" Piper mumbled as she, too, kneeled down beside of Prue.

"Just…pull it…out…. All…at…once…" Lilly instructed the trio. "Don't…stop…. Even…if I…scream. Prue, baby…I need you to…get behind me…and pull it out. Phoebe…go get some…towels. Piper…go get all the…fucking…bandages you guys…own."

They looked uneasily back and forth at each other before deciding that Lilly was the only one making since right now. As two of the three sisters ran off to get what the blonde had told them to, Prue got up on trembling legs to stand behind her fiancée. "I'm sorry, Lilly. This would never have happened if it weren't for our powers," Prue stated softly, tears threatening to spill in greater number from her eyes.

"No…don't be…. It's not…your fault…or your…power's. Just…fate. I'm…still…here," Lilly whispered back as she smiled and closed her eyes. "I…wouldn't…leave you."

Just as those words left her lips, Phoebe and Piper ran back into the room. Phoebe's face was almost completely obscured by the armful of towels she was carrying. It was a wonder that she hadn't fell by now. In Piper's hands, she clutched a couple bottles of rubbing alcohol, three ace bandages, and several boxes of band-aids. Between her teeth, she had a pair of tweezers. Those were, no doubt, for getting the shards of glass out of Lilly's porcelain skin. The thought of the pain she was about to endure made the blonde cringe internally.

Once they were settled and Phoebe had sopped up the blood surrounding the blonde and placed clean towels around her, and Piper had deposited her load of medical supplies close by, Lilly strained her neck to look back at Prue. "Ready…sweetheart?"

"As ready as I'll ever be," Prue sighed as she grasped the other end of the wooden spear with both of her hands. This action caused the wood to rattle slightly inside of Lilly. When she hissed out in pain, it startled Prue and almost caused her to stop, but she remembered Lilly's words. She slowly pulled the javelin out of Lilly's chest inch-by-inch until there it was completely out and tossed aside. Blood was oozing from both sides of the hole going completely through her chest. Lilly shrieked and clamped her teeth down on a wash rag that Phoebe had provided her with.

"I'm so sorry!" Prue cried as she leaned over and placed delicate kisses all over Lilly's contorted face. The blonde didn't stop her screaming, but the two youngest Halliwells watched in amazement as the gaping hole in Lilly's chest slowly began to close up. It didn't completely heal, as there were still puncture wounds on both sides of Lilly's chest that were still bleeding, but the muscle and meat in between grew back perfectly…as if it had never happened.

"What the hell…?" Piper muttered.

"Explain…later…" Lilly grunted as the cloth fell from her mouth. "Get me up, get the glass out, and then stop the bleeding," she ordered as she opened her green eyes. Her pupils were nothing but pinpoints of pain by this point and the whites of her eyes were glazing over.

Prue gently put her hands on Lilly's sides, but having a firm hold on her, she was able to pull her up to her feet without it being extremely painful for Lilly. The blonde had to lean against her fiancée for support as Piper went around her body, plucking each shard of glass from within Lilly's flesh with an acute precision. Each time a bloodied sliver of glass was pulled from her, Lilly would hiss out in pain and curse at the wind.

"Shh, baby. It's almost over," Prue murmured soothingly as Piper pulled what she thought to be the last shard of glass out. As she deposited it and the sullied tweezers in the Tupperware dish that she was using to hold the fragments, she turned back towards Lilly with a sorry expression.

"I'm sorry, Lilly, but we have to disinfect all the cuts and wounds with alcohol. It's going to sting a bit," Piper apologized as she took another clean rag that Phoebe had taken the liberty to run back to the bathroom for and soaked it in the rubbing alcohol. As it made contact with the puncture wounds on her chest, Lilly swore under her breath and pressed against Prue for support. Piper cleaned each cut individually before wrapping Lilly's chest tightly up in two of the three ace bandages to keep the self-healing wound clean, as well as to act like a tourniquet. She then wrapped up Lilly's thorn-sliced arm using the other bandage. The smaller cuts were covered with band-aids and almost forgotten about as Lilly smiled with renewed strength.

"That feels so much better. Thank you," she replied as she stepped forward to delicately wrap her arms around Piper. She felt Piper kiss her cheek before she pulled away and went back into Prue's arms.

"It's the least I can do for my sister-in-law," Piper replied with a grin.

Phoebe came over and stood on her tip-toes to kiss Lilly's forehead. "Holy hell, Lil. I thought we'd lost you. Never do that to us again," she ordered, the last part being said in her adorable, baby voice.

"I'll do my best," Lilly promised her with a smile.

"Can I kiss my own fiancée now? Thank you," Prue teased with a sniffle as she brought a free hand up to wipe her tears away.

"Of course you can, baby," Lilly replied as she turned in Prue's arms and brought their lips together gently. Although they could both taste the tang of blood, Prue didn't mind as much now because Lilly was kissing her back again, and that's all she really needed to be happy.

Lilly could feel each individual wound crisscrossing her skin in a vicious pattern underneath the bandages as she leaned back against Prue. The couple was sitting on the loveseat in the living room, glancing up the stairs at the attic occasionally to make sure nothing out of the ordinary was happening. The blonde had a feeling that this would become a habit in the next few weeks, but she didn't mind. As long as she was still alive and Prue and her sisters were safe, Lilly was an exponentially happy camper.

Prue had one of her arms wrapped around Lilly's back, taking the upmost caution to avoid hurting her love. The blonde didn't seem to acknowledge her wounds as she merely snuggled into Prue's side. It had taken more than a while to clean up the mess Jeremy had made in their manor, but they were all beaming once the job was completed. The shattered grandfather clock had been disposed of, each of the girls cursing at it and grumbling their dislike for it. The blood had been mopped off the floors and the glass had been sealed up in the Tupperware dish and thrown out with the rest of the clock. Between the three sisters, they had gotten Lilly washed up and scrubbed clean. Her once-blood soaked hair was now its normal shining platinum colour as it hung in loose ringlets around her face.

The sisters finished their task with a sigh as they all settled down around Lilly and Prue. They were…more than happy that the blonde was alive and well, but they were somewhat curious as to how. Lilly had promised that she would tell them, and she more than intended to keep her promise.

"Okay, Lil. Spill…" Phoebe ordered with an encouraging smile.

"Pheebs!" Piper warned in her stern, motherly voice that she had most certainly inherited from their mother.

"She only has to explain if she's feeling up to it," Prue stated to her sisters before she turned and looked at her fiancée. "Are you sure you want to tell us? You don't have to." Lilly nodded her head to show that she understood that and she tried to convey without words how thankful she was, but she was left wondering if she got it across.

"It's a rather long story," Lilly replied as she reached over and took Prue's free hand in her own and began playing with the brunette's fingers. Prue just smiled and let her lover continue what she was doing. "Please don't bombard me with hate for not telling you guys sooner…. In Greek mythology, there were three birdlike women called Sirens. I'm sure you'll learn about these sooner or later as they are very much a real thing. They were often depicted as seductresses who would lure sailors to their deaths with their beautiful songs and voices.

"As you well know, I'm sure, my father was a sailor and he died before I was even born. At least that was what my mother told me. Do you remember my mother's name?" Lilly asked as she raked her eyes across each rigid form of the Halliwell sisters.

Prue cleared her throat before answering, "Aggie. Her name was Aggie, right?"

"Yes. Aggie was a shortened name for Aglaope. That was the name of one of the three Sirens. My two aunts, Penni and Thelma, visited me right after my mother died. What they told me frightened me and intrigued me all at the same time. They told me that my mother had seduced my father out on the ocean. She had sex with him, wanting nothing more than that. She was going to kill him and his fellow crewmen right after she was done with him, but that didn't exactly happen.

"For the first time in hundreds of years, a Siren got pregnant. They didn't think it was possible, but after my mother found out, she hunted my father down and killed him. Nine months later, I was born. Everything was fine until I hit my late teenage years. Apparently, there can only be three Sirens in the world at a time…ever. My mother, having been the one to get pregnant, was punished by her father, Achelous—the river god. Her punishment was death on my eighteenth birthday.

"She did die right after I turned eighteen, but I thought it was just from sickness. My aunts—their real names being Peisinoe and Thelxiepeia—tried to get me to go away and live with them on Cape Pelorum, so the three Sirens could be reunited again. I was barely eighteen at the time, but I was still a legal adult. I refused because this is my home and everything I loved was here.

"So, yes. I am technically a Siren, but I'm a hybrid mix between a human and a Siren, so my mother's immortality that was passed on to me doesn't really make me an immortal. My grandfather viewed me as a mistake and he had forsaken me until my aunts convinced him otherwise. I am to age like a normal human would, but I can't be killed by anything other than old age or if there is a child born into the world carrying my Siren blood in its veins."

The three Halliwells were silent as they continued to stare at her. It was hard to believe what they were hearing, but at the same time, it all made so much sense. Phoebe was the first to break the silence. "So, _that's _why you can sing so well!" This outburst caused the other Halliwells and Lilly to burst out into laughter.

"Yes, Pheebs. That's why I can sing so well," Lilly replied with a small smile.

"And it goes without saying that that's why Jeremy couldn't kill you," Piper added with an inquisitive look towards the blonde, who nodded in reply.

Lilly turned to look towards Prue and let her eyes flicker across her lover's slack features. "Prue, I hope this doesn't change anything between us. I do love you, and my voice hasn't caused anyone's death so far…."

Prue smiled slightly towards her fiancée. "Of course it doesn't change anything between us. I love you and I always will. I don't care if your part Siren, part unicorn, or whatever. You're my Lilly and that's all that matters." As she leaned towards her girl, the tiger lily scent of the shampoo they'd use to wash the blood out of Lilly's hair engulfed her senses. It comforted her and assured her that everything would be alright. Nothing could tear them apart now and, as far as she was concerned, nothing ever would.

Lilly purred in contentedness as Prue pressed her lips gently against her still-damp hair. She turned her head quickly to press her lips to Prue's retreating ones, causing all of the women in the room to smile.

"Well, now that we've cleaned the house, sorted everything out, and saved the world from inexplicable evil, I think it's time to call it a day. Let's go get some sleep," Piper said as she stood from where she sat with a yawn.


	19. Chapter 19

Lilly held her injured hand close to her more-so injured chest as she walked on trembling legs up the stairs. Close behind her was Prue, ready to catch her in case she stumbled. The brunette had offered to carry her lover up to their bedroom, but Lilly had politely refused, saying that she could do it herself and that Prue was incredibly tiny. "When you can hold more alcohol than one shot without being buzzed, then I'll let you carry me places," she had said, which caused Piper and Phoebe to crack up laughing. Prue had just flushed with embarrassment at her intolerance of alcohol.

At the top of the wooden stairs, Lilly lurched to the side and grasped onto the railing to keep her from losing her balance completely. Her breathing was coming in harsh, ragged gasps that burned her lungs as if they were ablaze. Tightness was welling in her chest where the puncture wounds still were, and the pain was clouding her vision and blurring her sense of direction.

As she tried to step forward, she veered off to the side again and collided with a wall. She whimpered at her queasy aching and just let herself slide down onto the ground. Unshed tears made her eyes gleam. Prue was beside her in a flash, fussing over her and asking if she was alright.

"I'm sorry. I'm fine. Just…tired," Lilly sighed as she leaned into her soon-to-be wife's arms and let herself be comforted. Prue's fingers were running through her drying hair, which sent her straight to heaven. Before she knew it, Phoebe and Piper were on either side of her hand she was on her feet.

"Can you get her into your bedroom, Prue?" Phoebe asked with sincere concern. Her brow furrowed with worry as Prue laced an arm around the blonde's waist, and Lilly put her injured arm around the brunette's shoulder.

"Yeah, she'll be all wrapped up safe and sound in my bed in no time," Prue reassured her sisters. Lilly turned her swimming head and kissed Prue's cheek, causing the brunette to smile. "You guys go on to bed. We all need our sleep."

"If you're sure…" Piper replied uneasily. She stepped forward and wrapped her arms around her older sister in a tight embrace. "Goodnight, Prue." She moved to stand in front of Lilly and started to put her arms out, but didn't know how to go about hugging the wounded woman.

"I'll take a rain check, Piper," Lilly reassured the middle sister with a small grin. "Same goes for you, Pheebs." Prue giggled and ran her fingers up and down Lilly's side tenderly. Although Lilly claimed to not be able to feel the pain of the glass-related cuts she'd been inflicted with, Prue was still wary of any sort of contact between the two of them that might hurt her fiancée.

"Aw, it's no fair that Prue gets to hug you!" Phoebe whined playfully in her little kid voice. She jutted out her lower lip in a pout and gave Lilly her best puppy-dog eyes. Her pout transformed into a grin when Lilly rolled her eyes and jerked her head to the side slightly, motioning for Phoebe to come over and hug her. "Yay!" cried the youngest brunette.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah. Just be careful," the blonde warned as she unsteadily stepped away from Prue to wrap her arms around the youngest Halliwell. She patted Phoebe's back before releasing her and going back over to stand with Prue. "Let's go get some shut eye, baby," Lilly mumbled as she attempted to stifle a yawn in vain. She put her arm back around Prue, and with half-lidded eyes, they all walked into their separate rooms.

Prue lead Lilly completely into their bedroom before turning back to close the door behind them. "Hey, Lilly…"

"Yeah, babe?" said the blonde as she glanced over at her fiancée before attempting to pull her shirt off over her head. She hissed in pain as the fabric of the destroyed shirt snagged against a few of her bandages before giving up in her attempts to get the putrid thing off.

"Here, let me help you," Prue instructed as she stepped towards her lover and began pulling the shirt over her head with a delicate, motherly ease. Once it was completely off, she tossed it on the ground and began removing her own shirt. When it was off, she threw it down to join Lilly's shirt and walked over to her wardrobe to find them something to sleep in. "Why didn't you go to Cape Pelorum with your aunts to be a real Siren?"

"Ah, what can I say? The woman I loved was here, even if she didn't love me back at the time. I couldn't and still wouldn't leave her," Lilly replied with a grin as Prue turned back towards her with two loose-fitting tank tops in her hands. The brunette smiled back at her and placed one top on the bed before gingerly pulling the other over Lilly's head. All of the now-exposed bandages bunched together as Lilly rolled her aching shoulders and sighed. "That feels _so _much better." She watched Prue with thoughtful eyes as she changed into her own pajamas.

"Prue…there's something I didn't tell you," Lilly sighed, catching Prue's attention and causing her to snap her head in the blonde's direction. "Sirens…aren't exactly 'good beings.' We're demons, Prue. The three original Sirens—my aunts and my mother—were once mortal women…or demigods rather, but they were all burned at the stake for having affairs with married men. Their rage overwhelmed their humanity, and they became demons. _I'm_ part demon."

Prue's brow furrowed in confusion as she thought about why Lilly had chosen to keep that from her sisters. As realization hit her, she felt like smacking herself in the forehead. "Oh, sweetie…. You think just because your mother was a demon that we'd try to—what did Phoebe call it?—vanquish you? No. You're perfectly safe. I promise." Prue stood on her tip-toes to brush her lips against Lilly's before moving to lie on her side of the bed. When she had flopped down and pulled the covers back, she motioned for Lilly to join her so they could finally get some much needed rest.

Lilly did join her, but she sat on the very edge of the bed. "That's…not all. Sirens have certain powers that are…kind of like yours, but only used for evil and evil alone. According to my aunts, they include, but are not limited to, telekinesis, pyrokinesis, teleportation, the Kiss of Death, and not to mention our voices. They told me that I could inherit all, none, or any combination of those or multiple other powers, and they would show themselves in 'due time.' They haven't since I turned eighteen, but I've never really had a reason to go looking for their usages."

Prue nodded her head to show that she understood. "Well, having unknown powers seems to be going around right now. Don't worry, sweetheart. We'll get through this together," the brunette assured her. "Now lay down. You need sleep more than the rest of us!" Prue narrowed her blue eyes teasingly as Lilly slowly laid back and turned onto her side facing Prue. This was now a habit and to keep weight off of her more severe wounds. "Goodnight, Lilly. I love you," Prue whispered as she pressed her lips against Lilly's forehead.

"I love you, too." Within a few silent moments, Lilly was sound asleep, but Prue was left awake. She couldn't help herself from staring at her soon-to-be wife in the calming darkness of her room. She'd almost lost this amazing woman today in more ways than one. She'd found out that her fiancée was part demon and partially immortal. She was…rather fond of the idea that Lilly couldn't be killed, but still worried that she could be hurt and feel the pain. She was left to wonder if they would stick together through the hectic years to come—whether Prue's powers grew and Lilly's made themselves known or not. She tried to convince herself that theirs was true love, and she sighed contentedly at the thought.

With a slightly shaking hand, she reached out and gently traced her fingertip over Lilly's peaceful features. She hadn't seen Lilly sleep so heavily without tossing and turning since the first night they slept together. With a small smile, she kissed Lilly's forehead again and laid her head back down on her own pillow. Her mind being at rest now, Prue found herself finally able to go to sleep.


	20. Chapter 20

**A/N (IMPORTANT! PLEASE READ!): **Well, we're finally here; the last chapter of "Something Wicca This Way Comes". I hope you've all enjoyed the ride and I want to thank those of you who have followed my work throughout the length of this 20-chapter saga. To those of you who have reviewed, I wish to thank even more so from the bottom of my heart. It really means a lot that you took the time out of your day to read my work-let alone let me know what you think! However, with the end of every story, starts the beginning of another. So, it brings me extreme pleasure to announce that (based on the reviews I recieve from this chapter and all the feedback from previous chapters) I will be starting another "Charmed" fan fiction with Lilly in it, if you guys would like that. This one, however, would be a blast from the past and kind of explain Lilly's high school years. So, if you'd like me to look into starting something like that, let me know what you think. Leave a review or PM(s) me. Even if I only get one feedback message, I'll more than likely start it up. I enjoy writing this OC as much as some of you enjoy reading about her. (: Well, without further ado, I give you the final chapter.

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Lilly stood with her arms folded across her aching chest as she gazed through the stained-glass doors of the Halliwell manor. She could hear birds cheerfully chirping their enchanting songs and smiled at the thought that she felt like a somewhat demonic—and more brutally awesome—Snow White. Having woken before anyone else in the house, she had quietly made her way out of her and Prue's bedroom and down the painstakingly creaky stairs; completely content on dealing with her aches and pains to enjoy the morning beauty of Prescott Street. Her mind was debating with itself on the notion that she actually step outside and lounge about on the stoop. Part of her mind was all for it, filling her head with pleasant thoughts of the sun rays beaming against her slightly chilled skin. The rest of her mind was against the idea, firing up some rarely logical thinking that someone would see her and ask how she came about such heavy injury. She chewed on her lower lip as her heart throbbed to be outside in the fresh air.

The contemplating blonde was so deep in thought that she would've jumped out of her skin—had it not nearly been ripped completely off just yesterday—when a slightly bleary-eyed, but fully dressed, Prue came up behind her and wrapped her arms around her. Lilly smiled at the pleasant sensation of the butterflies flapping their wings in her stomach as she pressed back against her lover. "Hey, you."

"Hey, yourself," Prue replied as she placed a soft kiss on Lilly's cheek. "What are you doing up so early?" She put her hands on Lilly's hips and rested her chin slightly on her fiancée's pale shoulder.

"My chest is what woke me up, but I took some aspirin and I'm alright now," Lilly explained as she brought one hand up to run her fingers through her mussed about hair.

"Mm…is there any reason in particular that you're just staring out of a closed door?" Prue asked with sincere curiosity. At the back of her mind, the sounds of her sisters stirring upstairs registered, but she quickly pushed those thoughts completely aside.

"Ah, I wanted to go out, but I'm afraid someone will see me."

"Hmm…" Prue hummed thoughtfully as her brow furrowed. "Well, how about we go out anyway, and if anyone asks, we tell them you took a tumble? Besides, I'd like to have some time alone with my fiancée…that isn't spent talking about demons or warlocks or anything to do with magic. Who knows? Some fresh air—and sunlight—might do you some good."

Lilly nodded to show she understood before she turned around in Prue's arms and nuzzled her lover's neck. "Okay, but I'm going to go make myself a cup of coffee. I already made a pot when I woke up this morning. Decaf, so Phoebe doesn't go flying off the handle during a hyper-spree…."

"Always so thoughtful," Prue teased as she leaned in to kiss the tip of Lilly's nose. She sighed as Lilly pulled away from her and began walking towards the kitchen. A grin splayed across her lips as she noticed Lilly sashaying her hips more so than was normal as she walked. The thought to tease the blonde a bit more occurred somewhere deep within her mind, until Lilly looked back over her shoulder with a sultry gleam in her eyes.

"You want something, baby?" Lilly purred seductively.

"Nothing that I can have until you're completely healed," Prue admitted with a sigh as she let her shoulders slump.

"Oh, who knows? You may just 'get lucky,'" Lilly replied with a wink. Without another word she turned back and began walking towards the kitchen again. When she returned, she found Prue waiting patiently for her at the front door. She clutched the coffee mug tightly in her hands and smiled at Prue as the brunette opened the door and waited for her girl to pass. "Thank you," Lilly murmured with a small blush. Normally, she was the chivalrous one. At least she was until she met Prue. Now they kind of shared the duty of "being the man."

"No problem, sweetheart," Prue replied with a grin. She shut the door behind them as they both stepped out onto the stoop. Lilly made a soft cooing noise of contentedness as the sun's warm waves hit her skin and loosened her muscles. Today was one of the rare days that it wasn't unbearably hot in California and the happy couple planned on enjoying as much of it as they could. The brunette witch watched as Lilly bent over slightly to set her mug down on one of the stone steps. She continued to watch in worried silence as Lilly then lowered herself slowly to sit on the sun warmed concrete.

Lilly looked up at her fiancée, squinting her eyes against the sunlight. She felt a smile tugging the corners of her lips upward as she patted the empty space beside her, motioning for her love to sit with her. Doing just as she was told, Prue flopped down right beside Lilly and put her arm around the loveable blonde. She positively beamed as Lilly leaned against her and put an arm across her stomach, pulling the brunette closer. This was how they were supposed to be—carefree and liberated to love each other without worries of not being accepted by society. This was how she wanted them to be for the rest of their lives, and if Lilly had anything to say about it, they would be.

A newspaper being thrown at their feet broke both of them from their train of thought. As Prue reached forward to grab the paper, Lilly pulled back and took a sip of the slowly cooling coffee. Her gaze became distant as she saw an approaching figure; the sight of which almost caused her to choke on the scorching liquid.

"Good morning!" Andy Trudeau called to the sun-basking couple. Prue's head snapped up instantly, and when her eyes rested on the form of the Inspector, a smile splaying across her lips. Lilly did quite the opposite. She set her mug back down and felt her form instinctually become rigid and cold. Her shoulders were squared and her features were slack, minus the corners of her lips being pulled down into an angry grimace.

"Hey," Prue called back without getting up from where she sat. Instead she held the newspaper in one hand and wrapped her other arm back around Lilly, whose demeanor actually softened slightly. However, a worried expression was still fixated upon her ashen features. "This is a surprise," Prue continued. Her blue eyes scanned over the small plastic cup of coffee in the man's hand.

Andy walked over to them and stood at the end of the stairs, smiling up at the couple. His eyes widened when they came across the sight of Lilly's heavy bandaging, but he seemed to think better of asking about it. "I've been feeling really guilty about that bad cup of coffee and not getting to catch up with Lilly as much as I'd like to. I just wanted to make it up to you two."

"So, you brought me a good cup of coffee?" Prue replied with a girlish giggle.

"Oh, this? No, this is mine. But, I—uh—just wanted to ask you out to dinner and maybe chat with Lilly a bit before I go into work. Unless, of course, either of you are afraid."

"Afraid of what?" Prue asked defensively.

"Oh, you know, having too good of a time, stirring up old memories, rekindling an old flame," Andy replied with a smirk. Lilly stiffened back up at once and let her green gaze harden. Andy glanced over at her and almost jumped at the sight of the look, but thought nothing of it and looked back at Prue.

"Hmm…good point. I'd better not," Prue said coolly as she rubbed her hand up and down Lilly's side comfortingly.

"Okay," Andy sighed, feigning disappointment. "Friday night, eight o'clock?" he asked with a widening smile. Prue glanced over at Lilly with an uneasy look. Lilly didn't look back at her; she just continued to glare menacingly at the Inspector. "You're hesitating."

"Yeah, but it's not what you think. It's just that our lives have gotten a bit complicated and we've got a lot of _planning _to do. Lilly proposed to me the other night, and so we have to set a date and get everything in order for our wedding. Can we call you and make other plans sometime?" Prue asked hopefully.

Lilly smirked slightly at the disheartened look that fell over Andy's face, but it quickly died away as he handed Prue a card that had his number on it. "Take care, Prue…Lilly. I'll see you around."

"Bye, Andy," the two girls replied simultaneously. As Andy turned around to walk back to his car, Phoebe and Piper ran out of the door, both still clad in their pajamas. Phoebe smiled as she ran her fingers through the short, cream coloured fur of the Siamese cat she was holding.

"It's Andy. I told you I heard a man's voice," she gloated to Piper.

"What did he want?" Piper asked as she noticed Prue's slightly giddy expression and Lilly's slightly crestfallen one.

"I think he tried to ask me out," Prue replied as she turned to face her sisters. She took her arm from around Lilly to do so, causing the blonde to sigh.

"And you said…?" Piper continued.

"What else could I say? I told him that Lilly and I are engaged and that we've got too much planning to do to make plans right now. Even if I was single and wanted to go out with him, do witches date?" Prue asked with a slightly puzzled expression.

"Not only do they date, but they usually get the best guys…. Or girls," she added when she noticed Lilly's increasingly gloomy one. After hearing Piper's words, Lilly brightened a bit, but still didn't say anything. She just held her arms out for the cat, which was struggling against Phoebe's grip and mewing for Lilly's attention. Phoebe giggled as she stooped down and handed the feline—who instantly quieted—to the blonde.

"You two will not be laughing when this happens to you. Believe me, everything will be different now," Prue groaned as she reached out with her free hand and scratched the now-purring feline's head. Lilly just buried the tip of her nose in its fur and nuzzled it gently, like it was the most precious thing she'd ever held. Of course, it would always come in second…considering that Prue was now hers to hold.

"When what happens? When we become engaged to smoking hot chicks with great voices and live happily ever after? Well, at least our lives won't be boring," Phoebe teased as she stood back up and grinned at her oldest sibling.

"But they'll never be the same," Prue sighed as she looked towards Lilly with a loving glance.

"And this is a _bad_ thing?" Phoebe asked as she too directed her gaze down at the blonde and smiled.

"_No_, but it could be a big problem," the eldest witch admitted with a small sigh. "The ones we love could get hurt…." Lilly's eyes snapped up and met Prue's gaze evenly, but with a heated gleam that showed determination and strength.

"Getting hurt is a part of life. I wouldn't still be here if I was worried about getting hurt. You know that just as well as they do, Prue," Lilly finally spoke in a firm tone.

"But still, Lilly, Prue's right. What are we gonna do?" Piper asked as she folded her arms across her chest and fidgeted slightly where she stood. Lilly grunted slightly as she heaved herself to her feet, leaving her slightly breathless. Prue was instantly on her feet with an arm around Lilly's waist to support her, which caused the youngest Halliwells to grin.

"Thanks, babe," Lilly huffed as a scowl of pain etched itself into her features. All of the Halliwells' hearts went out to the blonde as they all began walking back towards the manor's doors. Lilly was walking with a subtle limp that betrayed her soreness, but no one noticed her lover's pain more than Prue as she felt Lilly lean against her. Even if it was only slightly, it was enough to let Prue know that she was hurting.

"What _can't_ we do?" Phoebe asked with a slight grin as she picked up the feline that happened to be trailing them and carried it back into the manor. Its tail tip twitched in slight agitation as if it knew how much pain the Siren lover of the eldest Halliwell was in.

"We are gonna be careful, we're gonna be wise, and we're gonna stick together," Prue answered Piper's question with a curt nod of her head in Phoebe's direction.

Lilly and Piper both grinned as the latter replied, "Well, this should be interesting."

"Took the words right out of my mouth," Lilly commented as the four of them walked back through the doorway. Lilly stopped and turned to Prue, holding one finger up to her mouth to signal her to be silent. Neither Phoebe or Prue "noticed" that the two women had hung back and continued to walk through their house; going on with their daily business as usual. Prue raised an eyebrow at the blonde as she wrapped her arms around the brunette's waist and pulled her in closer. "I just wanted to tell you how much I'm looking forward to being a Halliwell," Lilly admitted as she trailed her fingertips across the small of Prue's back.

"Oh, is that so? Well, let me just tell you that I am _overjoyed_ to be the future wife of the most amazing woman on the planet," Prue replied with a grin as she brought out hand up and pushed Lilly's platinum hair back behind her ear.

"I also wanted to show you something that I figured out how to do this morning," Lilly added with a playful smirk. Turning her head back towards the stoop outside, Lilly focused her gaze on the nearly-forgotten coffee mug still sitting on the concrete steps. To Prue's amazement, it levitated up into the air and went soaring past them into the kitchen—never spilling a drop of the dark liquid inside.

"That's amazing, Lilly," Prue breathed as she let her gaze rest back upon the blonde in her arms.

"Maybe, but it's still not the most amazing thing I've ever 'done,'" she remarked with an adorable shrug. Without another word, Lilly quickly leaned in and pressed her lips tenderly against Prue's. It wasn't a rushed or hurried action, but one that conveyed their love and adoration for each other completely. Prue's hands snaked their way up Lilly's body and her fingers were soon tangle in Lilly's straightened locks. As their embrace became more heated, they both closed their eyes and used their separate powers to close the door of the Halliwell manor.


End file.
